The European Union is an empire, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso announced Tuesday in a press conference where he lauded the new EU reform treaty.

“We are a very special construction unique in the history of mankind,” said Barroso. “Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organization of empire. We have the dimension of empire.”

Barroso, however, went on to make the important distinction between this European empire and any previous empire: “Empires were usually made with force with a center imposing diktat, a will on the others. Now what we have is the first non-imperial empire.”

It is somewhat baffling that Barroso could say the EU is an empire that does not impose its will on its subjects when just a few weeks ago the EU agreed to force upon its populace a re-named constitution that had already been rejected by French and Dutch voters.

In their bid to force their will on EU member nations, framers of the new treaty deliberately disguised it. “The long but relatively readable constitution,” reported Reuters, “was turned into a short but complex document … designed to be incomprehensible to citizens” (June 26; emphasis ours). So it would not look like a constitution, one senior negotiator admitted, “We made a real effort to be opaque.”

It is no wonder Barroso doesn’t want people to compare the two treaties. “What is the point in comparing the reform treaty with the draft constitution?” he said. “We believe the new text is better than the old one, so why bother comparing the two?” In other words, let us just impose our will on you.

In the same vein, Barroso warned Britain not to renege on Tony Blair’s commitment to the new constitutional treaty. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was “honor bound” by the agreement signed at the June 23 summit, said Barroso. “There is a principle of good faith. For me it as important as any legal commitment,” he said. “It is inconceivable that an agreement that was agreed unanimously in June is reopened now.”

Perhaps Barroso was simply confirming what many already acknowledge and fear—that the EU is an empire with expanding powers—but he wasn’t doing Prime Minister Brown any favors. The new pm is currently getting much flak for denying the British public a referendum on the new EU treaty, based on the argument that it does not have constitutional implications.

Mark Francois, Britain’s Conservative shadow Europe minister, pointed out: “The British public will be surprised to hear that we are now part of an EU empire. For the president of the Commission to say this is quite startling and anyone who thinks that we have been exaggerating in calling for a referendum on a revived constitution only has to look at what Mr. Barroso has said to realize the scale of what is now being contemplated.”

It is likely that Barroso’s comments will indeed push the British, the majority of whom already want a referendum on the new treaty, to become even more wary of greater involvement in the EU. This could easily edge Britain further away from—and eventually out of—the European Union.

The powerful Brussels bureaucrat’s admission is, in fact, confirmation of a prophecy that the Trumpet often refers to—which is in the midst of being fulfilled. That prophecy is the final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, an event which will powerfully impact this globe.