Brussels, 23/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - In a speech which had to be postponed several times, British Prime Minister David Cameron promised the British people on Wednesday 23 January that he would organise a referendum after 2015 if he is re-elected. The referendum would put the question of whether the United Kingdom should leave the EU or stay a member under a renegotiated relationship which would essentially be based on the single market.
“I am not a British isolationist. I don't just want a better deal for Britain. I want a better deal for Europe too. So I speak as British Prime Minister with a positive vision for the future of the European Union. A future in which Britain wants, and should want, to play a committed and active part”, Cameron - from the Conservative party - said. He listed three major challenges that Europe, having guaranteed peace on the continent, must now confront: - the institutional changes to come so as to enable the eurozone to make the single currency work better; - the crisis of competitiveness that Europe is now going through, with the European share of global production being projected to fall by almost a third in the next 20 years; - the growing feeling of frustration among European citizens, especially the British, with regard to a Europe that is distant and continues to integrate without consulting them.
In order to face up to these challenges, Europe needs “far-reaching change” in the way its priorities are set and in its way of working, Cameron said. In favour of a Europe à la carte, which is moreover already the rule in areas such as the currency, border controls, military intervention and soon the financial transaction tax, he argued for increased flexibility in the UK's relationship with the EU, while giving assurances that he wanted his country to remain a member.
In Cameron's view, this new relationship would be based on five principles. First of all, opening up the markets by completing the single market in sectors such as services and digital, and by reducing the bureaucracy that limits SME development. Cameron also wants the UK to play a lead role in trade negotiations with countries like the United States, Japan and India. Secondly, there has to be more diversity and flexibility. The EU should be able to act at the speed of a network rather than as a bloc. Furthermore, it should be possible for some powers to be handed to the member states, in accordance with a promise in the 2001 Laeken declaration. The UK is currently carrying out a screening of areas of responsibility that could be repatriated, and British Conservative MPs talk of employment and social affairs, fisheries and regional policy, and justice.
Referendum. Calling for negotiation on a fair and just basis, Cameron said that those who refused the British such a debate would contribute to precipitating the UK's exit from the EU. “This is why I am in favour of a referendum”, he said. However, this would not be before the government has had time to set out the basis of a new relationship with the EU - in other words after 2015 and the next parliamentary elections. The British leader supported “a real choice between leaving or being part of a new settlement in which Britain shapes and respects the rules of the single market but is protected by fair safeguards, and free of the spurious regulation which damages Europe's competitiveness. A choice between leaving or being part of a new settlement in which Britain is at the forefront of collective action on issues like foreign policy and trade, and where we leave the door firmly open to new members.”
Reactions have poured in since Cameron's speech. The European Commission welcomed “the important contribution” to the democratic debate on Europe in the UK. It is for the British and the British government to say what they think to be the best approach for their country within the EU, said a Commission spokesperson. The Commission was pleased about Cameron's “unequivocal” resolve for the UK to stay in the EU, the “positive” contribution of the UK being “in EU interests” especially in areas such as “the single market, enlargement, climate, openness to the world, and new trade opportunities”.
Critical tone in the European Parliament. It is not only the British Conservatives in the European Parliament who are critical. In the opinion of European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Cameron's speech “does not reflect the European reality and will not impress many of the UK's European partners”. With the announcement of a referendum, Cameron is “a sorcerer's apprentice”, who cannot tame the forces hostile to Europe that he has conjured up. He is playing “a dangerous game”, Schulz added. While convinced of the British leader's resolve for his country to remain in the EU, Schulz described the British wish to challenge the acquis communautaire as a “dangerous precedent”, with such a step not even being in the British interest.
It was much ado about nothing, jeered Austrian leader of the S&D Group, Hannes Swoboda. In Swoboda's view Cameron should have spent more time looking at the ways EU membership benefits the UK instead of launching his re-election campaign with this “tragi-comic” speech promising to renegotiate the UK's place in the EU. “The British prime minister is also mistaken if he thinks he can blackmail European institutions and leaders into granting the UK endless individual exemptions (…) Threats and lists of unilateral demands will not help win the support of the partners he needs to convince”, he added, accepting that the EU should evolve - but more towards solidarity and social fairness. It was the same story with the Greens/EFA Group, who denounced the blackmailing of the EU on the part of the British leader. “We cannot have five years of European summits and Council meetings blocked or upset by attempts to extort exemptions on the basis of a distant referendum”, said Daniel Cohn-Bendit from Germany. In the opinion of his compatriot Rebecca Harms, seeing “the EU as a free trade club is an outdated concept in total contradiction with the challenges of the 21st century” (our translation).
The leader of the EPP group, the French member Joseph Daul, said that he found it “surprising that after 40 years of partnership and common decisions, one of our member states discovers that it is unhappy and wants to renegotiate the terms for our joint future”, even more so coming from a Conservative Prime Minister, “who is trying to wipe out the contributions of his predecessors”.
The leader of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt from Belgium, strongly criticised Cameron's “double game”. He said Cameron was using the ignorance of the British people on the way the EU works: “He claims to want a common set of rules for the single market at the same time as wanting exceptions for Britain. He wants a Single Market Council to focus on raising competitiveness, but we already have one. He claims that Europe just offers more of the same and never changes but the EU is constantly changing.” And the former Belgian prime minister said that there can be no question of “individual renegotiation or opt out by a single member state from agreed policies” because it would lead to “the unravelling of the internal market” as other countries seek their own concessions on the Treaty in return. “David Cameron's vision of Europe is rather like Boeing's Dreamliner. Looks great, sounds great, but once you try to use it you find there are hidden safety problems”, said Graham Watson (ALDE, UK). In Watson's view, to suggest “that the EU has no 'demos' shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the last 20 years of European history”.
With this speech, “the genie is out of the bottle”, said British eurosceptic leader of the EFD Group, Nigel Farage. However, Farage refuses to take Cameron seriously because the latter made no reference to Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty authorising a member state to leave the EU. This is the “only mechanism that exists within the treaties to take powers back”, Farage said. (MB/transl.fl)