'Europe's chief bureaucrat last night provoked fury after threatening to use the “full force” of the Lisbon Treaty to impose economic control over every EU nation. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso claimed that financial stability was so critical that sweeping new powers were needed for Eurocrats in Brussels to meddle in the economies of all EU members.

But his threat sparked an angry backlash from critics of an ever- growing Brussels bureaucracy. It raised fears that the EU – under unelected new President Herman van Rompuy – is planning a power grab.'

Read more: EU Chief Vows to Run British Economy From Brussels