LONDON — In Lisbon, yet another European Union Treaty has been signed, this one purporting to replace all previous treaties and to give Europe the pattern of governance it needs to meet the future.

Wrangles and disputes have already broken out between politicians and lawyers all over Europe as to what the new treaty really means. Does it preserve and settle a Europe of nation states, or does it move more powers to the EU's central institutions and weaken the freedom of the 27 (soon to be 28) member states to act as they want?

In Britain, in particular, where skepticism and suspicion about too much European integration has always been deep, the debate has already become furious, and threatens to get more so.