Brussels, 13/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - With less than two weeks to go until the European elections, the British Minister for Europe, David Lidington, was in Brussels on Tuesday 13 May to reiterate his country's priorities for the next European Commission: the competitiveness of the EU, the efficiency of the work of the European Commission, and bringing the citizens, Britons in particular, closer to the European project.
Over the last several weeks, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has already spoken at length about the relations he wants with the EU in the future, relations he intends to revise by holding a referendum on the subject in 2017.
Addressing the European Policy Center, David Lidington stressed the need to “avoid the temptation to launch a thousand new initiatives which confuse citizens and burden business”. The next Commission must work to “make British voters comfortable with the EU”.
On competitiveness, “the EU needs to become part of the solution and not part of the problem”, Lidington said. He believes that the answer is “liberalising the single market in services and digital in the way we did with goods 20 years ago”. On the free movement of the citizens, “we need to restore the popular trust”, said Lidington, who accepts that the freedom of movement is one of Europe's greatest achievements. But we have to ensure that this freedom of movement does not become the freedom to “claim benefits”. His third priority is non-discrimination against countries which are not part of the eurozone, the principle of “justice”, Lidington said, and an “architecture that respects the fact that the EU is made up of 28 member states” and respects these differences. His fourth theme is learning from the Ukrainian crisis by undertaking to guarantee energy security and exploring all areas (renewables or shale gas). Lastly, tackling the democratic deficit from which the EU suffers. The minister believes that this can be achieved by giving the national parliaments an increased role. Using a red card system, these could block any Commission proposal they feel is unsuitable. Lidington spoke out against an exercise which has been described as democratic by European leaders: personalising the campaign. The United Kingdom has no wish to get caught up in this. And, David Lidington went on, the Treaty is extremely clear when it stipulates that “it is the European Council which appoints the President of the Commission”. The European Council's choice should be for the best candidate and nothing in the Treaty states that it should be “limited to a certain number of individuals”, a specific reference to the candidates currently in contention for the post. (SP)