EU POWER GRAB: Terrifying Brussels plot to replace OUR police and judges with Euro stooges

BRUSSELS police could end up patrolling Britain’s streets and arresting our citizens under radical proposals put forward by Jean-Claude Juncker’s in-house think tank.

Europe’s elite should take away Britain’s ability to investigate and prosecute terrorists and place wide-ranging powers in the hands of unaccountable Euro officials instead, according to a bombshell report.

The dynamite proposal, from the European Commission’s own policy think-tank, suggests creating a centralised EU intelligence agency which would override the Met Police, MI5 and MI6.

Today critics of the plans said the prospect of armed police under the command of unelected Juncker patrolling our streets and arresting people with impunity was “frightening”.

They added that the plot, drawn up by bureaucrats at the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), was a further sign of how Britain’s sovereignty is being eroded by the Brussels project.

In its disturbing report the think-tank calls on European leaders to act “fast” and create an EU “Security Union” which would see an enormous transfer of powers from Westminster to Brussels.

Under the plans the EU’s own police force would take over responsibility for investigating and prosecuting terrorists in Britain, with the cases then tried by Euro officials in our courts.

Investigations would be carried out by a centralised European security agency, which would answer only to unelected bureaucrats but would have carte blanche to operate with impunity in the UK above the heads of our own law enforcement officials.

Disturbingly the proposal is believed to have a number of high-profile backers including Belgium’s government and Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s all-powerful Home Affairs commissioner.

The EPSC is tasked with carrying out “blue sky thinking” on policies which could one day be implemented by the EU and holds no official powers.

However, it answers directly to Mr Juncker and is fronted amongst others by Michel Barnier, a veteran EU Commissioner insider who serves as the Brussels chief’s special adviser on defence.

And the plans are likely to further fuel fears that unelected EU bureaucrats could exploit the spiralling migrant crisis and growing terror threat from Islamic State (ISIS) to grab more powers from member states and accelerate their relentless push for a United States of Europe.

In a strategic note released on April 20 the EPSC said “immediate steps” need to be taken to work towards a centralised EU intelligence agency, including imposing a “legally binding duty to share information”.

Amongst its more worrying proposals it states: “An EU Public Prosecutor’s Office on Terrorism could, in liaison with Europol, be responsible for investigation and have the possibility to prosecute and bring cases to judgment in relevant national courts.”

It also calls for a "European judicial response" and says Brussels prosecutors would have powers to get involved with the "listing of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts and subjecting them to restrictive measures" — something usually carried out by British police and judges.

Such a system would effectively see unelected Brussels bureaucrats acting as the sole investigators and prosecutors in terrorism cases involving British citizens.

It also suggests setting up a “European intelligence academy” and appointing a “European Security Adviser” and “European Security Board” which would be given wide-ranging powers.

The report concludes: “In the face of such adversity, the European project has to muster the collective determination to stare down this new threat – and do so fast. That is why the time is ripe for a genuine ‘Security Union’.”

But it has infuriated eurosceptics, who said the proposals are a further example of why Britain needs to leave the EU.

UKIP’s defence spokesman Mike Hookem said: "To have police officers on the street who are not directly under the control of the directly elected British government is frankly frightening.

"The only people who should have powers of arrest in the UK are solely British law enforcers enacting our law, not Brussels law.

"But what this also demonstrates is that no crisis is too severe, no disaster too great for the EU not to use it as a power grab.

"Be warned — if we don't vote for Brexit on June 23rd we are sending a signal that we support these new measures. There is no status quo — it's independence or more Europe."

And Armed Forces minister Penny Mordaunt, who is campaigning for Brexit, added: “This latest EU integration project not only shows how little the EU cares for the sovereignty of nation states, but also how little it understands the business of counter terrorism.”

The proposal is not the first time that the idea of a centralised Brussels intelligence agency has been floated by Europe’s elite.

In December a similar plan by Mr Avramopoulos was rejected by Britain and Germany as an unacceptable breach of sovereignty.

But EU bureaucrats have a long history of forcing through measures against the wishes of member states — most recently last month when they announced they will plough ahead with visa-free travel for 45million Ukrainians despite the result of the Dutch referendum.

And Belgium’s Justice Minister Koen Geens has openly supported such a proposal, saying last week said it was a matter of “regret” that the “big member states” want to block it.

The report is also a huge embarrassment for David Cameron, who promised the British public earlier this year that his failed renegotiation of powers from Brussels had secured a provision in the EU treaties that national security is a strictly national competence.

Instead its authors argue that there are already a series of existing treaty clauses that would legally justify the EU assuming far greater intelligence powers, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights which refers to a human right to security.

The fact that they are even discussing such a move will be seen by eurosceptics as a further indication that Mr Cameron’s promised reforms are not worth the paper they are written on, and will be quickly dropped if Britain votes to stay in the 28-nation bloc on June 23.