Brussels, 07/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron says it is legitimate for his country to renegotiate the terms of its membership to the European Union at a time when the eurozone debt crisis is making it necessary for countries that have adopted single currency to apply greater integration. In his view, such a process should not, however, lead to the UK's exit from the EU.
“The countries of the euro, they've got to change to make their currency work - they need to integrate more. They need to make changes to all their systems more. What that means is they are changing the nature of the organisation to which we belong. And so we are perfectly entitled, and not just entitled but actually enabled because they need changes to ask for changes ourselves”, Cameron said last weekend during an interview with the BBC. Taking the view that many things were better done at national level, he spoke of the possibility of tightening up the rules for receiving immigrants on British territory.
Mid-January, Cameron will deliver a long-awaited speech on the United Kingdom's place in Europe, after the 40th anniversary of the UK's accession to the EU went totally unnoticed. The British government is currently weighing up the advantages and disadvantages of sharing sovereignty at European level in a large number of areas.
Speaking with caution, the British prime minister nonetheless recognised how important it was for the United Kingdom to remain a member of the European Union. He said that, if the UK were outside the EU, it would continue to trade with the member states but would not have any input on the rules of the market. London, which is Europe's leading financial centre, is fighting to ensure that the banking union in the eurozone does not have an adverse effect on the UK's own interests, especially within the European Banking Supervision Authority. (MB/transl.jl)