British support for membership of the EU is now ‘wafer-thin’, David Cameron has warned ahead of talks with European leaders.
The Prime Minister will travel to Madrid, Paris and Berlin this week to demand the EU stop meddling and pay more attention to ‘democratic consent’.
Mr Cameron affirmed his commitment to reform and said he was ‘convinced’ that there would be changes to Europe’s rulebook.
Clawing back powers: David Cameron is heading to Madrid, Paris and Berlin this week to discuss the EU
Before his visit to Spain today, the Prime Minister said: ‘We need to recognise that consent for Britain’s membership of the European Union, and all the ways that it has changed, has become wafer-thin in Britain.
‘And politicians, if they do their job properly, have to recognise this fact rather than try to brush it under the carpet.’
The Prime Minister also accused the institution of ‘over-reaching itself’ with directives and interferences. He is determined to claw back powers from Europe over certain areas such as human rights and law and order.
Mr Cameron, who will speak at a joint press conference with Spain’s prime minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid, said he wants to challenge the central tenet of the EU, namely the commitment in the founding Treaty of Rome in 1957 to create ‘ever closer union’.
He said Europe would be stronger if it was more flexible, ‘where we don’t all have to do the same things in the same way at the same time’.
In remarks to newspapers in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland, Mr Cameron said: ‘I think the best outcome for Britain is our membership of a reformed European Union.’
Burning issue: A protester in London sets fire to an EU flag in 2011 as British support for Europe has collapsed
British governments and political parties had reneged on promises to hold a referendum on the EU, he said, saying that this has ‘damaged consent for Britain’s membership of the European Union’.
He added: ‘There’s no good wishing that away. It exists; it’s a fact. And the best thing to do when you have a problem is to confront that problem, deal with it.’
Warning that treaty change was inevitable, he continued: ‘I’m absolutely convinced that there will be the need to reopen at some stage these treaties, not least to solve the problem of the Eurozone.
‘Just as Eurozone countries will argue that it’s necessary to have treaty change, I think it’s perfectly legitimate to argue that non-Eurozone countries might need to have treaty changes.’
Mr Cameron hit back at critics accusing him of creating uncertainty in the EU with his threat to hold a vote on Britain’s membership if the institution did not reform. He said: ‘The greatest uncertainty would be to have this problem and to wish it didn’t exist.
‘Much better to have a plan for how we make changes to the European Union, how we make changes to Britain’s membership, how we secure Britain’s membership of a reformed EU and we settle this issue. I have a plan.’
He cited the financial transaction tax as one EU move that Britain opposed, adding: ‘We are a major European power, a major European player. But do we think that the European Union has sometimes overreached itself with directives and interventions and interferences? Yes, it has. And that needs to change.’
After his first official trip to Madrid as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron will travel to Paris for talks with French president Francois Hollande. He will meet German chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin at the end of the week to discuss his reform agenda.
But both Germany and France have warned there is little chance they will agree to overhaul the treaty to reflect his demands before 2017 – when he pledged to hold an ‘in/out’ referendum.
Mr Cameron has been urged to bring forward the poll to 2015 to prove he is serious about changing Britain’s relationship with Europe.
More than 100 backbench Tory MPs have said he has not gone far enough and want a timetable and details of the referendum now.
