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Cameron Vows To Stay In EU
Conservative Party leader David Cameron has declared that should he come to power, he will not attempt to extract Britain from the European Union.
His speech - curiously under-reported, as the EU Referendum Blog remarks, was one of his first public pronouncements on Britain's relationship with the EU since his decision to pull the Conservatives out of the federalist EPP grouping in the European Parliament.
"I want to be part of the European Union," he said, but "I want that European Union to change, I think it's clear that it needs to change, just look at the referendum vote on the constitution."
Cameron claimed that there was broad support on the EU's centre-right for a Europe without a federalist constitution, one in which powers were not relentlessly squeezed from national governments to the centre.
"As Europe widens," he said, "as you get countries from central and Eastern Europe coming in, with centre-right parties of slightly different traditions, I think there are parties who take that view quite strongly, and which share our views on free trade, on markets, on the importance of the transatlantic relationship."
Cameron's vision of the EU, according to Reuters, is one driven by free trade and cooperation on environment, crime, terrorism and some foreign policies.
He said that he was also happy with trade policy operating on an EU level, though he added that under the Conservatives, Britain would campaign for more liberalisation and open markets - he has his work cut out for him if he goes for that one, we think.
One area Cameron would try to reclaim for Britain is employment and social policy. He argues that Britain made a mistake in relinquishing its opt-out from the EU's social charter, which governs employment law. Britain got "nothing in return" for taking on EU social policy, he said, "we're (not) against employment protection but it's something that should be decided in Westminster with reference to our own traditions and culture."
Cameron reckons he has the backing of prominent centre-right leaders, including Angela Merkel of Germany and France's presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy. Yeah, right, to put EURSOC's response in phrasing the Tory leader will understand. Sarkozy, famously, would like to see the Constitution restored piece by piece, while Merkel is determined to revive it, even if that means adding even more obtrusive social policy demands to buy off French voters.
Both leaders have criticised Cameron's decision to remove the Tories from the EPP, though Cameron now claims that Sarko, at least, understands his argument that it is better to be "a friendly neighbour than a reluctant tenant" in the centre-right federalist grouping.
