Deputy Prime Minister's speech on Britain and Europe
Nick Clegg delivered the speech 'In Europe for the National Interest' on 8 October 2013.
Richer, stronger, safer, greener
I am a pro-European - that is no great revelation, I know. But sometimes you need to say it, clearly and unambiguously.
The isolationist forces in Britain are on the rise [political content removed]. And every time Europe is back in the spotlight, their hostility towards it 바카라 사이트 this negative reaction to all things continental 바카라 사이트 drowns out the other voices in this debate.
Pro-Europeans have to take some responsibility for that. The moderate and rational voices have been too quiet up until now. But we cannot afford that silence anymore. We are no longer asking if Britain will have a referendum on continued membership, we are asking when Britain will have a referendum on continued membership.
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But the threats certainly haven바카라 사이트t been forgotten in Europe바카라 사이트s capitals. The hardliners have been stoked up. And next May the Euro-elections are bound to become a proxy for the bigger question of 바카라 사이트in versus out바카라 사이트 바카라 사이트 a debate that will play out in the 2015 general election too.
And all this at the worst possible time. Our economy is finally turning a corner, but the recovery is fragile. We should be focusing on finishing the job and laying the foundations for long-term growth, not entertaining the idea of an EU exit that would throw our recovery away.
Let me be absolutely clear: leaving the EU would be economic suicide. You cannot overstate the damage it would do to British livelihoods and prosperity.
3 million British jobs are linked to the Single Market 바카라 사이트 3 million. As a member we are part of the world바카라 사이트s biggest borderless market place, made up of 500 million people. It바카라 사이트s now the largest economy in the world 바카라 사이트 ahead of the United States 바카라 사이트 and it바카라 사이트s where we do around half of all our trade.
Major non-European companies build their factories here precisely because we are a springboard to the EU.
It gives us access to trade agreements with over 50 countries around the world 바카라 사이트 and we바카라 사이트ve launched negotiations with Japan and the US. The latter alone could bring an extra Β£10 billion to the UK every year. But on our own we바카라 사이트d have to renegotiate all of them 바카라 사이트 from scratch, and from a position of weakness; government would spend a decade doing nothing else. The fact is you cannot be for a stronger economy if you are for leaving the EU.
And it바카라 사이트s not just jobs and prosperity. What will happen to our influence in the world if we choose to go it alone? Of course Britain must build up relationships with emerging powers and likeminded nations in other continents. But this idea that we can pull up the anchor, drift away from our neighbourhood - our historical and geographical allies 바카라 사이트 only to float around in some new network of relationships is a nonsense.
I worked in Europe; I used to negotiate trade deals with the Russians and the Chinese. We simply will not be taken seriously by the Americans, the Chinese, the Indians, all the big superpowers if we바카라 사이트re isolated and irrelevant in our own backyard. We stand tall in Washington, Beijing, Delhi when we stand tall in Brussels, Paris and Berlin.
2 weeks ago I was in Washington. Did they want to discuss US/UK trade? No 바카라 사이트 they understandably wanted to talk about the big money, the US/EU deal. The Americans value their old friend Britain as a bridge to Europe as much as anything else.
What will happen to our citizens바카라 사이트 safety if we leave? The British police depend on co-operation with their counterparts abroad - sharing information, pooling resources, helping each other bring criminals to justice. Take that away and you are forcing the police to do their job with one hand tied behind their back.
Just last week we heard Rob Wainwright, the British Head of Europol, declared that it would be an 바카라 사이트unmitigated disaster바카라 사이트 in the fight against organised crime if Britain withdrew from the organisation.
Criminals cross borders 바카라 사이트 so must we.
What about our environment? Climate change doesn바카라 사이트t stop at Dover. There is no point reducing our carbon footprint unless our neighbours do the same. But together we can set collective targets and work in concert to achieve them 바카라 사이트 and we have far greater clout in encouraging other countries and regions to do the same.
Every way you look at it 바카라 사이트 jobs, influence, safety, the environment 바카라 사이트 the UK is infinitely better off in the EU.
Time to speak up
So I바카라 사이트m not worried about how we make the case for membership to the British people 바카라 사이트 the argument is ours to win. But I am worried that we바카라 사이트re not out there making it. My great fear, in all of this, is that pro-Europeans are being too slow to wake up to the danger ahead.
The day I dread 바카라 사이트 the day I hope never comes 바카라 사이트 is a time when it is all too late: Britain has stumbled out of the EU, and we look back to these days and say we should have done more. It will not be enough to speak up on the eve of a referendum. We need to start challenging some of the ludicrous mythmaking by the isolationists now.
Brussels isn바카라 사이트t perfect by any means. But it바카라 사이트s just not true that it바카라 사이트s some kind of sinister super-bureaucracy - the Commission is smaller than Birmingham City Council. It바카라 사이트s just not true that the Treasury is robbed blind for the privilege of membership 바카라 사이트 last year our contribution to the EU Budget was around the same as we spend on the NHS every two or three weeks.
It바카라 사이트s just not true that we바카라 사이트re at the mercy of a foreign elite. Britain shapes everything that happens in the EU. Nothing passes into UK law without the input of our MEPs and government ministers. Even though there are 28 states in all, we have 1 in 10 of the seats in the Parliament. And in the Council the countries with the most votes and greatest power are France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
So we need to counter the myths. And we need to explain the real reasons Britain belongs in the EU and what is really at stake in this debate. I have made my commitment very clear. But today I am calling on businesses and organisations and individuals to show their support for continued British membership in a reformed EU.
I am not asking you to get involved in the party politics. But I am asking you to be part of a coalition for the national interest 바카라 사이트 standing up for Britain remaining in Europe; for a Britain that is richer, safer, greener and stronger in the world.
I바카라 사이트m calling on every internationalist politician 바카라 사이트 from any party; every company that buys or sells across the Channel; every umbrella group representing British business interests; the big banks and City firms that depend on the Single Market as well as the small family firms who want to expand; the investors who바카라 사이트ll have to reconsider their operations here if we withdraw from the EU; the research institutes that benefit from pooled EU funding; the British Erasmus students studying abroad; the hundreds of thousands of Brits who바카라 사이트ve relocated to France, Spain, and Greece; the police; the charities who pick up the pieces when men, women and children are trafficked across our borders; the human rights organisations that want to make sure British citizens stay signed up to the protections in EU law; the green groups who want a UK that can lead the way on climate change; the farmers and fisherman who need a level playing field in Europe; the millions of British consumers who get better, cheaper products because we바카라 사이트re a member of the EU; and anyone and everyone who can see that there is strength in numbers in today바카라 사이트s world.
Express your support for staying in the EU however you like: tweet using #whyIamIN, put it on Facebook, write to the government, write to the newspapers, make your position clear in the conversations you have and the work you do.
Whatever you do, just don바카라 사이트t let the isolationists speak for you or dominate this debate.
And if you are for IN, don바카라 사이트t wait for others to say it; make yourselves heard.
Don바카라 사이트t surrender reform
And, if you believe we should stay in Europe, don바카라 사이트t let anybody tell you that you are somehow against change, or anti-reform. Don바카라 사이트t believe this idea that if you see the benefits of membership, you are blind to the EU바카라 사이트s faults.
I was campaigning to make Brussels more open and transparent a decade and a half ago, when I was an MEP for the East Midlands. Last month I signed up to a 40-page document filled with ideas to make the EU more streamlined, more accountable, more focused on growth; less meddlesome in areas of national life that are none of its business, and more effective in the areas where nation states cannot act alone.
It바카라 사이트s not just us. This week the Centre for European Reform are publishing a report which sets out a range of important institutional and policy changes which are achievable without waiting for treaty change, and which several like-minded states are likely to support 바카라 사이트 a contribution I very much welcome.
And the fact is: Europe is changing, whether we like it or not. The single currency area is healing, but the Eurozone crisis revealed deep economic tensions and they must be resolved. The Eurozone core will need to tighten further: rules governing greater fiscal discipline will be demanded by the strongest Eurozone members and the weaker economies will expect sustained Eurozone support in return.
Britain, by definition, will lie outside of these emerging arrangements. But there will be big implications for the single market as a whole 바카라 사이트 and we need to make sure that the EU that emerges at the other end continues to serve all of its members.
The Banking Union is a prime example. It바카라 사이트s in everyone바카라 사이트s interests for it to work 바카라 사이트 including states like the UK who are not part of it. But it is in no one바카라 사이트s interests if the banking union operates in a way that damages the City 바카라 사이트 Europe바카라 사이트s biggest financial centre. The coalition government will now make sure that doesn바카라 사이트t happen.
And next time there is Treaty Change I will certainly advocate new legal safeguards guaranteeing that 바카라 사이트 whenever a reform might impact on the Single Market 바카라 사이트 Euro-ins and Euro-outs have an equal say.
So the real question is not who wants to reform Europe and Britain바카라 사이트s relationship with it, it바카라 사이트s who can do that?
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The coalition바카라 사이트s unsung success
And, most perplexing of all: the unilateral approach is completely at odds with what the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have been doing together in this government. Our partners don바카라 사이트t tend to shout about this, but one of the least noticed coalition successes is our record of delivering for the British people by engaging constructively with our European partners 바카라 사이트 much of which David Cameron deserves credit for.
This is the real way to be ambitious for Britain. Yes, there are times you need to put your foot down: that바카라 사이트s why I supported the Prime Minister when last year it looked like Britain might need to exercise our veto to stop a rise in the EU budget. But by working with our allies 바카라 사이트 the Germans, the Dutch, the Swedes and others 바카라 사이트 we not only secured a good deal for British taxpayers, we protected the rebate and capped the budget for the next spending period.
For years people said the Common Fisheries Policy was beyond reform. In Britain we have seen our fish stocks depleted and profits diminished, while our fisherman have been tied up in bureaucratic knots.
Yet in January we led the way on a historic agreement that will transform fishing practices across Europe, and end micro-management from Brussels, massively benefiting our fishing industry and our marine environment too.
The Coalition has brought together 13 like-minded countries to take on the Commission over excessive red tape. For example, hundreds of thousands of firms will now be exempt from costly EU accounting rules. We바카라 사이트ve also cracked the previously illusive EU-wide patent 바카라 사이트 worth up to Β£20,000 per patent in translation costs alone.
And our experiences only prove what we have seen with every government for the last 60 years: if you want Europe to deliver for Britain, you have to lead. Margaret Thatcher led when she helped pioneer the single market. Tony Blair led when he and Jaqcues Chirac launched EU defence and security cooperation. It was British Lawyers who drafted the European Convention on Human Rights - not to be confused with the EU, as it so often is, but a huge success for European co-operation nonetheless; British police who have driven ground-breaking cooperation on cross-border crime. And 바카라 사이트 in keeping with this very British tradition 바카라 사이트 I will always believe that the best way to represent our nation바카라 사이트s interests is to stay and win the argument, showing leadership abroad for your citizens at home.
If you want to know my position, it바카라 사이트s very simple: yes to staying in Europe; yes to reforming the EU and improving our relationship with it; yes to a referendum when the time is right.
And that is the approach I will continue to take.
More meaningful, less meddling
And throughout this process we need to get Europe back to what it바카라 사이트s good at: adding value where the global nature of our problems means states have to work together for any real chance of success.
Completing the single market in services and the digital economy; innovating so that our continent keeps up with China, India, Brazil; opening up trade with the rest of the world; dealing with the fragile states on Europe바카라 사이트s borders; promoting human rights and democracy; working together for a greener future; protecting our citizens from the threats that cross our borders.
Where the EU has lost its way, we need to refocus it, so that its contribution to national life is less meddling and more meaningful. Where the EU has become intrusive, it needs to be pushed back.
I welcome the announcement by President Barroso last week that the Commission will simplify EU rules to make them lighter and less burdensome. I want to see a much more active role for national parliaments in scrutinising EU decisions and policing the principle of subsidiarity. We바카라 사이트re still not fully exploiting the provisions made for this under the Lisbon Treaty.
And it바카라 사이트s right that the UK stays opted out of rules that we believe are damaging - like the 48 hour cap on the working week in the Working Time Directive. It바카라 사이트s important to point out that we바카라 사이트re not ideological about this. Many of the workers바카라 사이트 protections that we now take for granted actually originated in the EU. Guaranteeing paid holiday and regular breaks - they바카라 사이트re also in the Working Time Directive. So there are good bits too; but we need to get the right balance.
Where arrangements are unfair, they need to be corrected. High up on my list is the Common Agricultural Policy, where we need to end the historical subsidies that distort trade.
And where the institutions are just plain wasteful, of course that needs to end. It바카라 사이트s ludicrous that the European Parliament has an official seat in Strasbourg. The round trip for MEPs travelling from Brussels and back costs Β£150 million a year. It바카라 사이트s high time the Strasbourg seat was scrapped.
And I say all of this as a pro-European 바카라 사이트 because we are the real reformers now. I say this as someone who wants to change and improve the EU and Britain바카라 사이트s relationship with it precisely because I am ambitious of what can be achieved, because I believe we are at our best when we are open and outward-facing 바카라 사이트 richer, stronger, safer and greener.
If you believe that, it바카라 사이트s time to say it. Stand up for a proud Britain leading in a better EU. Stand up for staying in Europe, for the sake of the national interest.
I will and I hope you will too.