The background
The debate over the UK’s relationship with the European Union reignited after David Cameron said he would not rule out a referendum but called for a measured approach. The prime minister has come under pressure from Conservative eurosceptics to put Britain’s membership of the EU to the public vote. And Tory calls for a referendum have increased in volume as Europe’s financial crisis has deepened.
In an article for The Sunday Telegraph, Cameron wrote that he would call a referendum if new EU treaties threaten Britain’s sovereignty. In response to the crisis affecting the single currency, eurozone members are moving closer to political and fiscal union. The PM said he would ensure Britain’s interests would be protected in the face of further European integration.
David Cameron: We’re not jumping into a referendum
“We need to be absolutely clear about what we really want, what we now have and the best way of getting what is best for Britain. We need to answer those questions before jumping to questions about referendums,” Cameron wrote in The Sunday Telegraph. The PM said he would not rule out a future referendum on Europe, but that relationships within the eurozone are changing quickly in response to the financial crisis, so this is not the time for hasty decisions.
Cameron is torn between Westminster and Brussels
The UK prime minister is caught in an unenviable position, wrote Rafael Behr on The New Statesman’s Staggers blog. On the one hand, “he wants to influence the evolution of European institutions as they adapt to the single currency crisis. He needs to preserve British influence without signing up to any more political or economic integration.” But on the other hand, he cannot simply ignore the Tory eurosceptics clamouring for a referendum on Britain’s EU membership – even though talk of an exit will weaken the country’s negotiating position in Europe.
Divisive referendum debate is a distraction
“This contorted, over-the-top, energy-sapping, party-splitting furore is a foolish and irrelevant diversion from the urgent task of moving Britain and the eurozone away from the cliff’s edge,” said Steve Richards in The Independent. According to Richards, it is almost certain that Cameron will go into the next general election pledging a referendum on Europe; he’s under too much pressure from his party to do anything else. And then Labour will have to follow suit. “Never underestimate the capacity of Europe to tear apart our political parties and virtually destroy them,” Richards warned.
It seems Cameron’s attempt to pacify Tory eurosceptics has not been entirely successful, if Conservative MP Nadine Dorries’ Twitter reaction is anything to go by.
Well I never. A hundred of us tell Cameron we want a referendum and he says no. He will regret that. #wrongcall
— Nadine Dorries MP (@NadineDorriesMP) June 29, 2012
Forget negotiation, are we in or out?
Cameron’s recent talk of renegotiating Britain’s relationship with the EU obscures the fundamental question, argued Philip Johnston in The Telegraph: “Do we want to stay in or not? That is the issue that the referendum — should we ever get one — must resolve once and for all.”