Brussels, 17/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - British Finance Minister George Osborne has called on the European Union to change if it didn't want to decline and risk seeing the United Kingdom leave after the referendum on membership of Europe promised by the Conservatives by 2017 if they are re-elected in 2015.
At a conference in London on Wednesday 15 January organised by two Eurosceptic organisations, Open Europe and Fresh Start Project, Osborne said it was time to change the European Union and the UK's relations with it before putting the decision in the hands of the British people. Should we remain in a changed Europe or would we prefer to leave, he asked.
In terms of changes, Osborne mentioned the absolute necessity to preserve the single market as the countries of the Eurozone futher integrate.
Osborne said that withdrawal of the UK from a Europe that has managed to change itself would be bad for the UK and the exit of a country as big and important as the UK would be very bad for the EU.
Some 95 Conservative MPs have asked the British prime minister, David Cameron, for the House of Commons to be allowed to veto any new EU rules (see EUROPE 10995). Criticised by the European Parliament for its hostility to the free movement of all Europeans migrants (see EUROPE 10998), the British government is carrying out an assessment of the powers of the EU to see which ones can be repatriated to the UK as part of a process of changing the EU treaties, a process aimed initially at helping the 18 eurozone nations boost economic and monetary union. (MB/transl.fl)