Brown: Eu Will Stay As It is

Gordon Brown today tried to draw a line under the Lisbon treaty-signing debacle by hailing an agreement that there will be no more reform to the institutions of the European Union for the "foreseeable future".

The prime minister said the statement agreed at a one-day summit in Brussels was an "important signal" of where the EU's priorities now lay.

"We agreed specifically that it was time to move on from institutional changes," he told a news conference.

"We expect no change in the foreseeable future so that the union will be able to fully concentrate on other challenges ahead.

"I think that is an important statement about the important priorities for the future."

It followed the signing yesterday in Lisbon of the controversial EU Reform Treaty, which critics say revives the abandoned EU constitution - a claim the government strongly denies.

Brown came under fire after missing the official signing ceremony because it clashed with his appearance before a Commons committee.

The prime minister later flew to Lisbon to sign the document alone.

Speaking at a press conference after meeting with fellow EU leaders, Brown rejected the suggestion that he had failed to play his part in full by missing yesterday's ceremony.

"I signed the treaty and David (Miliband, the foreign secretary) and I played our part in the events of yesterday," said Brown.

Brown stood by his decision not to hold a referendum on the treaty as he ruled out the possibility of an eleventh hour u-turn on giving a say to the British people.

He said: "If we were joining the European Union, there would have been a referendum. If there was the older treaty that was around last summer, there would have been a referendum. But because we were so successful in negotiating the red lines on the changes in the amending treaty, it means it was not a constitutional treaty in the way it was before, and it means there is no need for a referendum."

He added: "When the British people see the details, which will be debated in great detail in the House of Commons, they will see there was no need for a referendum."

Brown said that now the treaty had been signed, European summits could focus on the common concerns facing the 27 nation states. "What we are going to debate are issues of security, the economy and the environment," he said.