Jack Straw moved yesterday to put a positive gloss on the debate over Europe's new constitution when he contrasted Eurosceptic charges of rampant federalism with his own bland 10-point summary.  Ahead of this week's EU summit in Greece, where the draft constitution will be discussed, the foreign secretary insisted that the text "settles the balance between the (25 current and future member) nations and the EU where it should be - with the nations as the anchor of the union", much as Britain wants.  In a speech made inside his own department Mr Straw denied that the constitution - to be finalised during an inter-governmental conference over the next year - creates either "a substantial expansion of EU-wide powers or a radical overhaul of its existing treaties and competences". That claim is fiercely disputed, not just by the Daily Mail, which yesterday claimed an 89.8% vote in favour of a referendum on the constitution after an unofficial ballot in which it claimed 1.7m votes had been cast.  The former Tory Europe minister David Heathcoat-Amory, who was a British member of the 15-month con stitutional convention, published a withering analysis of the draft. It suggested that proposed safeguards would count for little against "a determined European commission and an activist (European) court" determined to expand EU powers at the expense of nation states.  He added: "The government's refusal to admit a referendum is based on deceit and cowardice: deceit in trying to disguise the importance of the undertaking; cowardice in not having confidence in their own arguments."  Mr Heathcoat-Amory's analysis contrasted sharply with that of Mr Straw, himself a reformed Eurosceptic who now argues that only "hysterical" critics - intent on promoting "myths" - can deny "the treaty confirms the EU as a union of nations, not a superstate".  His 10 points, written in voter-friendly language, describe the EU as a body where countries agree "to work together where they need to" and anyone can leave; he cites the basic human rights on which it rests, its openness and its commitment to exercise "only the powers the member states give it".  He adds that "there will be common action, more in some areas than others" and stresses the foreign and defence policy will remain "subject to una nimity" by all 15 - soon to be 25 -states.  Mr Heathcoat-Amory's critique, before the EU heads of government council in Salonika, points to the drive by what he calls the EU's "centralised, technocratic elite" to expand their powers.  The Tory MP for Wells cites "rubber articles" of existing EU treaties that allow officials to use the single market legislation to harmonise and regulate laws beyond their agreed powers. He also takes issue with points made by Mr Straw, including his insistence that taxation and foreign policy will not become subject to EU majority voting.  He also notes that the draft being promoted by former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing states explicitly for the first time that EU laws "shall have primacy over the law of the member states".  Yesterday Mr Straw swept aside such concerns, quoting the French paper Le Monde's conclusion that London "has every right" to feel pleased with the Giscard draft. As for majority voting, he said: "It has long served our interests."  He defended the creation of a permanent president of the European council, arguing that Nato works better because the secretary general always chairs meetings of sovereign member states.  guardian.co.uk/eu Classification Language: ENGLISH Subject: EUROPEAN UNION (91%); CONFERENCES & CONVENTIONS (90%); VOTERS & VOTING (90%); REFERENDUMS (89%); TREATIES & AGREEMENTS (88%); TYPES OF GOVERNMENT (78%); FOREIGN POLICY (77%); EUROPEAN UNION INSTITUTIONS (77%); STATE DEPARTMENTS & FOREIGN SERVICES (77%); EUROPEAN UNION LAW (77%); INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS (77%); HEADS OF STATE & GOVERNMENT (73%); INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (72%); DEFENSE & MILITARY POLICY (50%) Company: EUROPEAN COMMISSION (54%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (54%) Organization: EUROPEAN COMMISSION (54%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (54%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (54%); EUROPEAN COMMISSION (54%) Industry: DEFENSE & MILITARY POLICY (50%) Person: JACK STRAW (79%) Geographic: EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES (94%); EUROPE (93%); GREECE (79%)