JUST imagine how cheesed off people from Lancashire would feel if they got ripped off in Leicestershire or Lincolnshire - and then found they could not do a thing about it.

We all expect a fair deal, wherever we are in Britain. And if we don't get it, we know we can always seek justice through the courts.

British citizens also have rights under existing European law. But few people know what these rights are - let alone how to enforce them - because nobody in the EU has ever bothered to list them.

That, though, is about to change. A high powered group of MEPs, MPs, government nominees and a European Commission representative is currently drawing up a Charter of Fundamental Rights for EU citizens.

Some group members want to go further and add new rights to the charter. They also want it included in a new EU Treaty - due to be approved in Nice, shortly before Christmas - making it legally enforceable by the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

For others, including the British government, additional rights in a legally enforceable charter would be counter productive. Citizens' rights would be reduced, not enhanced.

Test cases would disappear in a legal quagmire involving the EU Court and the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights - a totally separate body to the EU.

Despite the best intentions, the only people to really benefit would be fat cat lawyers, raking in fat fees. That would not help the people of Lancashire one iota.

GARY TITLEY, MEP for the North West (Labour), Spring Lane, Radcliffe, Manchester.