As I've been reporting, although the Convention is over, the battle for control of the new, super EU isn't over. It's just moving to another battle field -- the coming Intergovernmental Conference.

The person who chaired the Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, advised the EU heads not to tamper with his draft constitution. Giscard warned the delicate balance he had achieved in the document could easily come undone.

Now it looks like Giscard's warning will be ignored. The British government has announced it will be delivering a White Paper in September listing the "red lines" Britain will not be willing to cross. And, one of these lines Britain will not cross is changing their mutual defense obligations and shifting it away from the NATO alliance (Read about it here).

The reason this is interesting is because, as it stands today, only 10 EU nations have a mutual defense agreement -- the Brussels Treaty Powers. And, these 10 nations are currently meeting their obligation to defend each other under Article Five of the NATO charter.

Giscard's new draft constitution would allow all EU members to have a mutual defense agreement -- not just the 10 Brussels Treaty Powers. And, this change could shift Britain's defense away from NATO and American control.

But, this is exactly what some other EU member states want. Just last April Germany, France, Luxembourg and Belgium held their own mini-defense summit. Their goal was to establish a "hard core" defense group of nations outside of NATO command. 

I believe this explains German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer's, recent warning. Fischer said if Britain attempted to change the draft constitution, Germany would do the same over other issues. In other words, if Britain didn't go along with the "hard core's" defense scheme, Germany wouldn't go along with some things Britain wanted.

The Convention may be over, but the struggle for control of the new, super EU isn't.

This coming Intergovernmental Conference we'll see the battle of the 10 horns.