United Kingdom To Hold Referendum on EU Membership
David Cameron At Tory Conference
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Sunday that he would not support a referendum about the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. He made this statement at the Conservative party conference.
The Commons are to set a date before Christmas for a one-day debate and vote on a referendum about European membership. The decision follows the government’s decision according to which the members of the parliament are to consider topics demanded by at least 100,000 people by “e-petitions.”
Natasha Engel, member of the Labour party, and chairman of the committee that must organize the debate and vote on the referendum, said that the European Union today is completely different from the one in 1975, when the United Kingdom voted for integration.
She said that the reopening of the debate is due to the fact that people are talking about it in public or in private, and many are demanding a renegotiation of the British presence in this Union.
David Cameron himself said that though he opposed the idea of leaving it altogether, some of the power should be repatriated in the context of the European struggle to keep the eurozone functional.
Britain is not a member of the eurozone, and its major concern is the loss of sovereignty, especially in the economic situation of the European countries, which has led some of the decision-makers to advance the idea of creating a continental government, which extended powers.
David Cameron said that he thought that too much powers had been given to the European Union, and that some of those powers must return to the national countries. However, he added, it is in the interest of Britain to continue with Europe, and considered that the prospect of the disappearance of the eurozone is bad for the UK.
Speaking about the referendum, Cameron said that the people of Britain don’t want the country to leave the European Union but rather that a fair balance of power exist between a country like Britain and the European Union.
He argued that the crisis would place the European Union in the position of renegotiating some of its treaties, which would give Britain a chance to repatriate some powers, especially related to the employment laws.
Dominic Raab, Conservatory MB, said that if more “hare-brained” ideas of integration are realized by the EU, the United Kingdom will have no choice but to leave the Union.
The foreign secretary said that the government would look at the petition to organize a vote on the EU membership, but that the government would not be in favor of leaving the continental body.
He criticized the idea of organizing an in-out referendum at a time when the focus should be on getting economy to grow.
However, the reasons for the Euroscepticism seem to be more than strictly political. Work and Pensions Secretary Duncan Smith coined as “madness” the decision of the European Commission to pay full out-of-work benefits to new immigrants, adding that such an initiative would cost Britain £2.5 billion a year.
Smith announced his support for the change of the European treaties, so that European authorities be prevented from interfering in domestic businesses of the member state.
