PM's pro-Euro message for sceptics

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The Prime Minister gave a strongly pro-Europe message as Parliament geared up for a bruising debate over the controversial Lisbon Treaty.

MPs will vote on the second reading of the Bill to ratify the treaty next Monday, ahead of at least a month of solid line-by-line debate.

With Eurosceptics preparing to pick at the details of the treaty and Tory leader David Cameron stepping up demands for a referendum, Mr Brown said the EU was "key" to business success.

"At times of global economic uncertainty, we should not be throwing into question, as some would, the stability of our continuing relationship with Europe," he said. "Even putting into question, as some would do, our future membership of the European Union which would risk, business and jobs.

"I strongly believe that rather than retreating to the sidelines, we must remain fully engaged in Europe, pushing forward the reforms that are essential for Europe's and Britain's economic future."

Membership was "the key to the success of business in the United Kingdom", he continued, drawing inspiration from former Conservative prime minister Winston Churchill.

"Churchill, who was a great European, warned of spending too much time trying to build a present in the image of the past and missing out on the great challenges of the future.

"He even warned people in the 1930s that in certain circumstances they were resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity and all-powerful for impotence.

"I believe we must not be half-hearted but whole-hearted about this vision of a global Europe for the future, whole-hearted about a vision of a open, flexible, outward-looking Europe investing in the skills of its people."