Hardly a day goes by without some snippet of press news – usually negative – concerning Britain’s relations with the EU. Whether it’s about the euro crisis or immigration, or more recently the EU budget bill, Britain’s exit from the EU - or ‘Brexit’ - is headline material. Meanwhile, the new EU institutional framework is taking shape. The 700 plus Members of the European Parliament elected in May and the 28 new Commissioners, including Britain’s Jonathan Hill, are rolling up their sleeves and getting on with the considerable task of setting and implementing the policy agenda for the next five years. Will Britain be at the table or on the menu?
Recent tensions
Should he be re-elected next May, UK PM David Cameron has promised a renegotiation of Britain’s EU membership with the results put to a referendum in 2017. In a bid to appease dissatisfied Tory backbenchers, a disgruntled British public and stem the rising popularity of UKIP, Cameron is under pressure from home to look tough on Europe.
It has been a year of uneasy relations between Cameron and his fellow EU leaders which included a bid to veto the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission President, and more recently, an outright refusal to pay an EU budget bill of Eur2.1 billion (GBP 1.7 billion). Cameron lost the former battle but claimed success in the latter with a halving of the bill and a shifting of the deadline for payment.
In a Brussels event I attended recently, with former UK Defence Minister, Dr. Liam Fox MP, discussion focused on the euro and on immigration as two of the main concerns which the UK Government and people have about Europe. The euro and Eurozone were identified as a threat to the buoyant UK economy and to global financial stability. The impact of immigration on British schools, houses and jobs was also highlighted with a plea for immigrants to fully integrate and contribute to the economy – ‘different is good, separate is not’, quoted one commentator.
Reluctant European
British tension with Europe is not new, however. The UK has a history of uneasy relations with its European neighbours causing Britain to be dubbed the ‘reluctant European’. From the initial accession negotiations in the 1960s, when Britain’s application for membership was twice denied by French President de Gaulle, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s fallout with EU leaders over her demand for a budgetary rebate in the 80s, Britain’s withdrawal from the Exchange Rate Mechanism and opt outs of the Eurozone and the Schengen Agreement in the 90s, the recent squabbles are only the latest in a long line of similar spats prompting one commentary to pose the question whether Britain hasn’t been ‘leaving’ Europe in slow-motion all along. (Michael Geary, Kevin Lees, E! Sharp, September 2013)
Waning influence
In the European Parliament, Britain’s power has waned somewhat since 2009 when, at the instigation of David Cameron, the UK Conservatives left the largest and most influential political group, the European Peoples Party (EPP) to set up and become the leading party in a new political group, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). The move was intended to protect UK sovereignty. The ECR is more Eurosceptic and less ‘integrationist’ than the two largest political groups, the EPP and the second largest political group, the Socialists (S&D).
Cameron’s string of demands and clashes on various issues has stretched the patience of his fellow EU leaders. Most EU member states desire a Union with Britain, but equally they are anxious to get on with the task of addressing ‘bigger’ issues such as growth and jobs. Even traditional allies, notably the influential German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have drawn back from the UK on points of principle. Cameron was sidelined in May when he wrongly assumed he would have Merkel’s support for a veto on Juncker as Commission President. His talk of restricting immigration has brought a strong response from Merkel, saying she will not compromise on the fundamental EU principle of free movement. As Sir Stephen Wall, former UK Permanent Representative to the EU put it recently, “Mr. Cameron can threaten to take the UK out of the EU. Standing on the cliff edge and threatening to jump will have some people running to his aid, but not at their own peril.” Non EU leaders have also entered the fray. US President Obama has said he wants to continue his excellent relations with a Britain that is part of the EU.
New EU – Britain’s opportunity
Despite the tensions, however, the majority of EU leaders desire a future union with Britain. Commission President Juncker’s allocation to Britain’s Commissioner Hill of the plum financial services portfolio which includes financial stability and capital markets, was viewed as a gesture of good will towards the UK in spite of the earlier veto by David Cameron of Juncker’s appointment. If the move was intended to draw in an increasing critical UK, initially at least it seemed to have achieved its goal. Commenting on the assignment, the British PM said “I think that is a great piece of news because 40% of European’s financial services industry is in the United Kingdom.”
On 1 December, another major piece of the new EU jigsaw was set in place when former Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, took over from Herman Van Rompuy as the new European Council President. Oxford-educated Tusk has stated publicly and forcefully that he wants an EU with Britain, commenting to media following his election in August, “No reasonable person can imagine the EU without the UK.” Brexit has already been identified as one of his top three priorities, in addition to the related economy and euro, and foreign policy. Like Britain, Tusk’s own country, Poland, is a non-Eurozone country and so will have a good understanding of the so- called ‘outs’.
Now that the new EU is in situ, work has started in order to tackle the major issues faced not just by Europe and Britain but by the global economy. Last week, Commission President Juncker unveiled his much touted EUR 300bn investment plan for growth and jobs. Other major issues, such as trade, including TTIP, which may have been sidelined during this year’s reshuffle, will resume priority focus. Europe’s challenges and opportunities are also Britain’s. In the final resort, the UK will have to carefully weigh up whether it has more to gain than to lose by staying at the table.
Comments