Brown gives MPs EU power

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Mr Brown said MPs would have to approve any move to further qualified majority voting (QMV) within the decision-making European Council, as he made a Commons statement on the controversial reform treaty.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said later: "It's true he has put an additional constraint on the Government as to how it can use its negotiating position in Europe. That's correct."

The premier's offer to MPs came as he promised to resist any further institutional change within the EU "not just for this parliament but also for the next".

But he was challenged directly by Tory leader David Cameron to "let the people decide" in a referendum on the treaty, the text of which was agreed in Lisbon early on Friday morning.

Mr Cameron also urged Mr Brown to let his Labour MPs have a free vote during parliamentary debate on the document.

Mr Brown said, to Tory jeers, that the earlier constitution had been abandoned and promised that legislation ratifying the new treaty would be subject to "fullest" debate in Parliament.

"The legally binding protocol ensures that nothing in the charter of fundamental rights challenges or undermines the rights already set out in UK law. And the treaty also ensures that nothing in the charter extends the ability of any court - European or national - to strike down UK law."

The Government had secured "vital safeguards" to the criminal law system and the police and judicial process, while making it possible to cooperate across borders, Mr Brown said.

The new treaty will be formally signed in December and then subject to ratification processes across the EU's 27 member states. It is expected to come into force in 2009.