Brussels, 19/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The prime minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, said in an interview with BuzzFeed on Monday 16 March that the EU “isn't working properly” and that too many people are happy “to go on as they are”, the British media have reported. He conceded, however, that his efforts to reform the EU and the negotiations with his partners would be “tough”.
“Europe isn't working properly. You can see that by the fact that Britain, outside the euro, has created more jobs in the last five years than the other 27 put together”, said Cameron. “Rather than burying this under the carpet, let's work out what needs to change”, he said in this interview, weeks ahead of the general election in the UK.
In the interview, the leader of the Conservative party also said that there would probably be a “big sigh of relief” if the Labour party under Ed Miliband won the election, as this would mean that the UK would just take what it was given. “Well, you don't get that with me. If you get me, you get a renegotiation and a referendum”, he said. He repeated that he wanted the commitment by member states to work for ever-closer union be removed from those parts of the Lisbon Treaty that apply to the United Kingdom.
He also wants assurances on the single market. “I'm clear that if countries in the eurozone want to integrate more, fine, they can. We are not joining the euro. We need some guarantees about how the single market will work and that we are not going to be dominated by eurozone countries making up the rules.”
Cameron has promised to renegotiate the terms of the UK's membership of the EU and to hold an in/out referendum by 2017, if his party wins the election. The Labour party has promised to hold a referendum only if there is significant transfer of powers from London to Brussels. (Solenn Paulic)