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Matt Dunham / AP
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron makes a long-awaited speech on the UK's place in the European Union in London on Wednesday.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday announced Britain would hold a referendum on whether it should leave the European Union if his Conservative Party wins the next election.
His comments prompted a largely angry reaction from European politicians, who condemned Cameron for "playing with fire" and trying to bend the 27-nation bloc to his will.
France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius revealed he had recently told a group of British businessmen that "if Britain wants to leave Europe, we will roll out the red carpet for you," Reuters reported Wednesday.
In the written version of his speech posted on the prime minister’s website, Cameron said people in the U.K. felt the EU was “now heading for a level of political integration that is far outside Britain’s comfort zone” and claimed “democratic consent for the EU in Britain is now wafer thin.”
“People ... resent the interference in our national life by what they see as unnecessary rules and regulation. And they wonder what the point of it all is,” he said.
“It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics. I say to the British people: this will be your decision,” Cameron added. “And when that choice comes, you will have an important choice to make about our country’s destiny.”
'Charting our own course'
He said that he understood “the appeal of going it alone, of charting our own course.”
“Of course Britain could make her own way in the world, outside the EU, if we chose to do so … But the question we will have to ask ourselves is this: is that the very best future for our country?” Cameron said.
The center-right Conservative Party contains a number of anti-EU lawmakers and has come under pressure on the issue with the rise of the UK Independence Party.
Cameron has talked about renegotiating the U.K.’s relationship with Brussels and told parliament later Wednesday he would campaign to stay in the EU -- if he was successful in reforming it.
But he repeatedly refused to answer questions from Labour Party leader Ed Miliband on how he would vote in the referendum if he was unsuccessful.
Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Liberal Democrat group in the European Parliament, said Cameron was “playing with fire” by saying he would renegotiate Britain’s membership and hold a referendum, according to ITV News. “He ... is raising false expectations that can never be met,” he said.
And European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the speech was “one of the worst I heard in a long time,” ITV News reported.
Schulz said Cameron was in favor of the single European market but also was also complaining about the regulations that govern it. “So, what does he want -- the internal market or the regulations? … I find what Mr. Cameron is doing very implausible,” he added.
Fabius, the French official, said it was as if Britain had joined a soccer club and then suddenly said "let's play rugby," Reuters reported. And German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said “cherry-picking” what the U.K. liked about the EU and leaving the rest was “not an option.”
Nick Robinson, the BBC’s political editor, wrote that Cameron would never make a “bigger gamble.”
“He is gambling that his referendum promise will calm rather than stir the fury of Eurosceptics both inside and outside his party, that he can persuade 26 other European leaders to give the UK the deal he wants and that voters will then choose to back it,” he said.
“If he pulls it off he will restore [Conservative] Party unity, see off the threat of UKIP, put Labour on the back foot and secure a relationship with the EU which is no longer a political nightmare for him and his party,” he added. “If he doesn't the name Cameron will be added to those of [Harold] Wilson, [Margaret] Thatcher and [John] Major - those whose premierships were destroyed by that most toxic issue in politics - Europe.”
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Too bad the referendum isn't scheduled untill 2017
From the BBC article,
"Beyond the call for "a more flexible, adaptable and open European Union" there was very little about what changes the prime minister will argue for. In other words we do not know what the new settlement he is seeking to negotiate would look like.
David Cameron says that if he can secure it he will campaign heart and soul for a yes (ie: In ) vote. He was asked whether that meant he would vote No if he didn't get what he wanted - whatever that is. He dodged the question."
Sort reminds me about Mitt Romney's "I'll close tax loopholes" but would never say which. The devil is in the details folks
England needs to get out now. i am american and live in the united kingdom. France and germany don't have respect for english history and traditions. Germany is trying to build the fourth reich along with france. This country is about to be run over with huge numbers of eastern europeans headding to it. And why do they come? becouse england recognises individual liberty where the e.u.,, namely germany and france do not. The marshall plan was a mistake after all it seems. We should have turned germany into a farming community. germany caused fifty million deaths in world war two; now they are after a retry but instead of war they are useing economics and their created curreancy the euro which is really the old mark. I vote out now, right now. To hell with you germany and france.
1. British, French, German and other European leaders need to change their colonial day mindsets and come to 21st century and understand where they stand.
2. Artificial/deliberately invented wars (Iraqi wars are the example) and high oil price manipulations are hurting most of the oil importing EU and other nations.
"His comments prompted a largely angry reaction from European politicians, who condemned Cameron for "playing with fire" and trying to bend the 27-nation bloc to his will."
David Cameron and many EU leaders themselves are responsible for the mess where people fighting their rulers and rulers are fighting among themselves.
Britain, France, Greece, Spain are some examples.
Don't blame average citizens and they can't understand the very sophisticated high level corruptions of the rulers of all parties.
One can't say: Blair was better than Cameron and so on. All are same in greediness for money and favors!
TellIt: for the average citizen, what are the assaults with English tradition that you speak so passionately about? The only story I remember seeing recently was a dispute about buying fruit in pounds vs. grams...
Do you see this as analogous to states rights vs. federal control in the US?
The most interesting thing about Cameron's speech is that it is a resounding endorsement of democracy. After seeking to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the E.U., they will have a national election in which this will (undoubtedly) be the major issue. Then, if and only if Cameron's party wins, they will have a referendum on whether the U.K. should stay in the E.U. There is no arrogance in this approach; it effectively requires a two-stage national vote. Because Cameron's rivals in the Labour party are pro-Europe, the possibility of the U.K. leaving the E.U. does not occur unless the voters turn out in two nationwide votes to make it so. You really could not make it more democratic than that.
As Americans, I think we all understand that Great Britain will be out closest ally regardless of what its future relationship to the E.U. may be. These guys stuck with us through the George W. Bush presidency, when we launched a major war to eradicate weapons of mass destruction that did not exist. It was a fiasco. It was our fault. Great Britain stood beside us through the whole thing, proving that loyalty is a quintessential British virtue that no other nation can match. (We certainly are too mercurial by far.) As Americans, the only thing we have a right to hope for in the U.K./E.U. debate is that the result turns out to be what is best for Great Britain.
As such UK is nothing more than a puppet state of the USA in the EU. Also, UK cannot survive without the help of the USA and undercutting the EU. Rather than to keep disloyal partner to sleep with and enjoy the bed, it would be much better if the UK would depart and have her own destiny outside the EU. In that case, the economical fall of the UK will be accelerated and soon the great Empire, who ruled over the world will be divided in to several pieces and vanished in the dusty clouds.
john, what a load of bull.
john, you've got a very imaginative mind. Do you always make up things that have no base in reality?
Where did you come up with: "UK cannot survive without the help of the USA"? and "the economical fall of the UK will be accelerated" as if there's some specific economical fall in the UK and not in in the US...
I agree with you Gary. John is more ful of crap than a Chrsitmas turkey.
The United States needs to open their eyes and follow suit with the UN.
Net results of cheap politicians like Blairs, Camerons, Sarkozys, Hollandes, Merkels, Bushes and others being sold out to oil rich Sunni rulers, oil companies and their lobbyists and inventing Iraqi wars.
Oil prices, which were hardly $30 a barrel before 1991, shot up to $140 a barrel at the height of Iraqi war.
Since 2003, future traders, rating agencies, Wall Street and oil companies and their lobbyists transferred five trillion dollars from oil importing countries to oil exporting nations.
That gave PIIGS in Europe.
Leave the expenses on wars including "war on terrorism" on strategic allies like Sunni Saudi and Paki invented al-Qaida, Salaffi, Taliban and so on!
We are back to square one with WMDs in Iran as in Iraq; sanctions on Iranian oil; oil price manipulations higher and higher from $40 in 2009 to around $110 now.
Now Merkel can follow Hollande and EU economic ruin. Countdown of collapse has started.
No wonder: in the sinking ship, EU, all have started fighting among themselves.
UK liberal immigration policies has led to their demise not being a member of the EU
Who's demise?
If they think it is better on their own, they should leave, it shouldn't be hard feelings.