Gordon Brown says 'no' to EU plan

PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has stopped Europe's leaders declaring a commitment to an "economic government of the European Union".

Backed by Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, and the European Commission, he told an EU summit that the term, contained in a Franco-German bail-out plan for Greece, was contentious and had to be changed.

Mr Brown's spokesman said: "There is no question of ceding power to Brussels. This is about better co-ordination of everyone's economic policies in Europe."

At a press conference, the EC president Jose Manuel Barroso said the wording now said Europe "must improve the economic governance of the European Union".