« Renegotiation is just a fig leaf to keep his party together. In reality, the referendum will be about our national identity »,
as published in The Times newspaper Cameron, the emperor with no EU clothes by Rachel Sylvester.
However, now that the Prime Minister has revealed his main demands for renegotiation, isn’t it the turn of the Eurosceptics to spell out in more practical detail their current dream of the UK’s future outside the European Union?
Thanks to the on-line Telegraph, here’s an interesting range of views on Britain’s current negotiating position to feed into our EU discussion programme.
Steve Peers, Professor of EU and Human Rights Law at the University of Essex, suggests that renegotiation of the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU) could be possible without treaty change (click on the link below for his article).
« So some have suggested the ?Danish solution?: namely a decision of the EU Heads of State and Government, meeting within the European Council, which constitutes the EU?s response to the renegotiation request, probably in conjunction with amendments to EU secondary legislation.
Such Decisions have been adopted in the past, as regards Denmark and Ireland, in order to address the former Member State?s difficulties ratifying the Maastricht Treaty and the latter Member State?s difficulties ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon. In the latter case, the European Council (ie Member States? Presidents and Prime Ministers) also agreed the broader legal and political context of this decision: the decision was ?legally binding?, it did not constitute a Treaty amendment, and its content would be set out in a Protocol to be attached to the Treaties in future. Indeed, the latter protocol was subsequently signed and ratified as promised. The UK could be offered a similar commitment. »
http://eulawanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/is-it-possible-to-reform-eu-without.html
The BCiP Key Issues Programme
As a result of the May 7th election outcome the referendum on Europe now stands front and centre in both British and European Union political life. BCiP therefore has launched a programmatical series to identify and help clarify the big issues attaching to the question of Britain?s place in Europe: ?Britain and the Future of Europe: BCiP Key Issues Programme?.
The first event will set the stage for those following, by recalling the institutional framework of the main European bodies, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, attendant (desirable or less so) institutional dynamics and unresolved difficulties. The picture thus emerging will be set against the expressed positions of the Conservative Party ? both as to end results sought and process to get there. And then we shall ask: (a) what are the big institutional issues? and (b) starting from here and now, how can they be tackled?
Subsequent events will focus on different policy fields or choices of existential importance to both Europe & Britain: the sources of identity ? Britain and Europe compared; the geopolitics of Europe & Britain?s understanding of its own defence and international relations game plan; comparative economics: staying on board versus jumping board; and in conclusion, to step back and sum up: strategic and cultural choices ? what is at stake? what does Britain really want?
Internal and external speakers will figure.
We hope to draw participants and/or observers to the Programme from beyond as well as within BCiP.?
Paul Thomson
BCiP Vice Chairman
Laura Sandys who has written the article linked to below is Member of Parliament for South Thanet and Chair of European Movement, UK.
« In the lead up to one of the most important elections of recent decades and, potentially, one of the most important debates about the UK?s political arrangements we have ever seen, it is crucial that we are constantly talking and thinking about the relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, two great entities that can do so much for each other when they work in tandem, cooperatively and positively. »
The Conservative party still needs to project a broader vision of the future of the European Union (EU), if it wants to reform it?
Katharina Klebba writing in LabourList (see article linked to below) thinks:
« A British reform agenda has to be rooted in a wider vision of the role the EU should play in the coming decade. The British public appears at the very least to be sceptical of the idea of an ?ever closer union?.
Yet the realities of monetary union are such that closer integration among the euro countries is almost inevitable ? a development that the UK appears to equally resent.
Therefore, timid proposals on restrictions to the freedom of movement of EU migrants may satisfy some public concerns but they won?t address many of the more fundamental anxieties of the British public regarding the EU.
Currently all three major parties are committed to Britain remaining an EU member if the UK?s demands for reform are met yet the terms of such a membership appear unclear. »
http://labourlist.org/2014/12/if-we-want-to-reform-the-eu-we-need-a-broader-vision-of-its-future/