Give me 2nd term & I’ll give you EU referendum: Cameron to Britons
24 Jan 2013 7:49 AM IST
Prime Minister David Cameron promised Britons a far-reaching referendum within five years on membership in the European Union — provided he wins the next election — in a long-awaited speech on Wednesday whose implications have alarmed the Obama administration and are likely to set the markers for a divisive debate within Britain and across Europe.
‘It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics,’ he said in remarks that had been widely foretold, raising alarms in capitals as distant and Washington about the risk that a ballot could lead to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
‘I say to the British people: this will be your decision. And when that choice comes, you will have an important choice to make about our country’s destiny,’ Cameron told an audience in London.
He coupled his promise with an impassioned defence of continued membership in a more streamlined and competitive European Union, built around its core single market underpinning the body’s internal trade.
‘I know there will be those who say the vision I have outlined will be impossible to achieve. That there is no way our partners will cooperate. That the British people have set themselves on a path to inevitable exit. And that if we aren’t comfortable being in the EU after 40 years, we never will be. But I refuse to take such a defeatist attitude — either for Britain or for Europe.’
‘And when the referendum comes,’ he said, ‘ I will campaign for it with all my heart and soul.’
The speech was a defining moment in Cameron’s political career, reflecting a belief that by wresting some powers back from the EU, he can win the support of a grudging British public which has long been ambivalent — or actively hostile — toward the idea of European integration.
‘I never want us to haul up the drawbridge and retreat from the world,’ he said. ‘I am not an isolationist.’ But he admitted that Britons have a particular view of Europe.
‘We have the character of an island nation — independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this sensibility than drain the English Channel,’ he said.
The projected referendum is also a gamble since, if Britons chose to leave the union, they would be casting aside an engagement which has been a fundamental part of British policy for four decades. A British exit would also mean the departure from the bloc of a major economic and banking power, placing new obstacles between British businesses and their main trading partners across the English Channel.
‘If we left the European Union,’ Cameron warned, ‘it would be a one-way ticket.’
The referendum is dependent on his Conservative Party winning the next election scheduled for 2015, Cameron said, and the ballot on the EU will take place in or before 2018. Cameron had initially planned to deliver the address in the Netherlands last Friday but postponed it because of the hostage crisis in Algeria.
Cameron said public disillusionment with the European Union was at an ‘all-time high’ in Britain, and ‘democratic consent for the EU in Britain is now wafer-thin.’
‘People feel that the EU is heading in a direction they never signed up to,’ he said. ‘They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation.’
Cameron ruled out an immediate ballot, saying that the turmoil within the 17-nation zone which uses the euro single currency, of which Britain is not a member, meant that the broader European Union was heading for sweeping reforms which his government wanted to influence.
A referendum before those changes are made, he said, would present an ‘entirely false choice’ with the euro crisis and the shape of the European Union’s future unresolved.
‘It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics,’ he said in remarks that had been widely foretold, raising alarms in capitals as distant and Washington about the risk that a ballot could lead to Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
‘I say to the British people: this will be your decision. And when that choice comes, you will have an important choice to make about our country’s destiny,’ Cameron told an audience in London.
He coupled his promise with an impassioned defence of continued membership in a more streamlined and competitive European Union, built around its core single market underpinning the body’s internal trade.
‘I know there will be those who say the vision I have outlined will be impossible to achieve. That there is no way our partners will cooperate. That the British people have set themselves on a path to inevitable exit. And that if we aren’t comfortable being in the EU after 40 years, we never will be. But I refuse to take such a defeatist attitude — either for Britain or for Europe.’
‘And when the referendum comes,’ he said, ‘ I will campaign for it with all my heart and soul.’
The speech was a defining moment in Cameron’s political career, reflecting a belief that by wresting some powers back from the EU, he can win the support of a grudging British public which has long been ambivalent — or actively hostile — toward the idea of European integration.
‘I never want us to haul up the drawbridge and retreat from the world,’ he said. ‘I am not an isolationist.’ But he admitted that Britons have a particular view of Europe.
‘We have the character of an island nation — independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this sensibility than drain the English Channel,’ he said.
The projected referendum is also a gamble since, if Britons chose to leave the union, they would be casting aside an engagement which has been a fundamental part of British policy for four decades. A British exit would also mean the departure from the bloc of a major economic and banking power, placing new obstacles between British businesses and their main trading partners across the English Channel.
‘If we left the European Union,’ Cameron warned, ‘it would be a one-way ticket.’
The referendum is dependent on his Conservative Party winning the next election scheduled for 2015, Cameron said, and the ballot on the EU will take place in or before 2018. Cameron had initially planned to deliver the address in the Netherlands last Friday but postponed it because of the hostage crisis in Algeria.
Cameron said public disillusionment with the European Union was at an ‘all-time high’ in Britain, and ‘democratic consent for the EU in Britain is now wafer-thin.’
‘People feel that the EU is heading in a direction they never signed up to,’ he said. ‘They resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation.’
Cameron ruled out an immediate ballot, saying that the turmoil within the 17-nation zone which uses the euro single currency, of which Britain is not a member, meant that the broader European Union was heading for sweeping reforms which his government wanted to influence.
A referendum before those changes are made, he said, would present an ‘entirely false choice’ with the euro crisis and the shape of the European Union’s future unresolved.
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