The European Commission president on Wednesday vowed that he would make transforming the EU into "a political union, with a coherent foreign and defense policy" his mission, adding that it would require an overhaul of the EU's treaty.

"Let's not be afraid of the words: we will need to move towards a federation of nation states. This is what we need. This is our political horizon," he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"We will present explicit proposals for the necessary treaty changes ahead of the next European parliamentary election in 2014. We must use the 2014 election to mobilize all pro-European forces. We must not allow the populists and the nationalists to set a negative agenda."

To rapturous applause from MEPs, Mr Barroso added: "We need to have this vision, vision of a medium term, longer term EU that is a federal path."

Mr Barroso's call for a new constitutional treaty follows Angela Merkel's demands for a political union to centralize the EU in order to avoid future debt crises threatening Europe's single currency.

His timetable for bringing forward a proposal for a new EU constitution could not be worse for David Cameron, the Prime Minister, as it would come in the run-up to a general election in 2015 and put the deeply divisive issue of Europe at the top of the political agenda.

In 2014, the government also faces a difficult decision on whether to use a block opt-out of 130 EU crime and policing laws, including the unpopular European Arrest Warrant that has recently led to allegations of miscarriages of justice.

In the same year, the government publishes an audit on Brussels powers and the impact of European regulation which will fuel a heated debate of whether Britain is better off inside or outside the EU...

A senior source told The Daily Telegraph that Whitehall officials and government lawyers had already begun considering how to deal with a referendum on a "recommendation that Britain stays in the EU without joining a political union."

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Editor's Note: The willing abdication of sovereignty is always -- always -- a very bad thing.


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