1. Forcing Brussels to make “an explicit statement” that Britain will be kept out of any move towards a European superstate. This will require an exemption for the UK from the EU’s founding principle of “ever closer union”.
2. An “explicit statement” that the euro is not the official currency of the EU, making clear that Europe is a “multi-currency” union. Ministers want this declaration in order to protect the status of the pound sterling as a legitimate currency that will always exist.
3. A new “red card” system to bring power back from Brussels to Britain. This would give groups of national parliaments the power to stop unwanted directives being handed down and to scrap existing EU laws.
4. A new structure for the EU itself. The block of 28 nations must be reorganised to prevent the nine countries that are not in the eurozone being dominated by the 19 member states that are, with particular protections for the City of London.
OK so what do I think?
1. There is a place within the EU for being exempt from "ever closer union". It's called the EEA. Or we can just leave entirely and create treaties with the EU to cover all their wonderful little "games" they play. Either way, that founding principle is not going to move...
2. It has taken them 5 decades and huge amounts of political blood sweat and tears to put almost everyone in the same economic cart. All of the recent signatories into the EU have had to guarantee they will join the Euro. Nobody in the EU will back down on this statement. Brown had the ability to block it when he turned traitor and signed the UK into an EU superstate. Ireland had the ability to block it when they voted on the Lisbon Treaty.
No treaty is going to change this statement again. EVER. In fact, I am not in favour of it. The Euro is good for the EU, it is forcing them to do things they should have done decades ago but would not do due to the electability of the governments. It's much easier to push in punishing and radical legislation if you tell the electorate "there's no point in voting for the other guy on this issue, they'll have to do it too".
The EU can't back down on this, so the only reason to ask is to be rejected.
3. This is never going to happen. The UK, like Germany, is in the top tier of sensible legislation to protect the people and their working lives. The EU, on the other hand, has to work with countries who think this is unreasonable. The only way they can do this is with the Directive system, which forces everyone, equally, to live within those boundaries.
They will never give that up so it's not even worth discussing as a possibility. Another one which will be rejected out of hand.
4. This one is the only one which is likely to be a greed. Many of the older members have talked about a 2 speed EU for a long time. This is nothing more than a good reason to do it.
Diplomats believe this plan represents the most likely deal they can achieve because it is so difficult to negotiate a solution that is acceptable to 27 other EU member states, as well as the European Commission and the European Parliament.
I always knew that they lived in lala land. Now everyone knows that those diplomats live in lala land. Now it's time. The EU will be faced with a real choice. Bow down to the power of the UK or risk losing the UK from the EU!
My take? They'll say NO, bugger off you idiots, then hope that the government will be able to poison the poll, divide the people and get a NO vote. It's what they would do. Almost every single one of them. The thing they have never understood is that this can only be done once in a generation and they shot that bolt at the Scottish Referendum....
Never mind the fact that David Cameron has stood up and said that if he doesn't get his "deal" then he will recommend that the UK leaves the EU.
Now love DC or hate DC, or even more mildly like/dislike which is the middle ground I stand in, almost everything DC has said he will do he has done. I actually believe that he believes his word is very important to him. So he will do what he said. This will be almost his last act as PM, he will not want it to be the one where people said he went back on his word or his integrity was lacking.
I believe that the leaders of the EU, institutions and states, will fatally underestimate DC on this and will try to back him down. They absolutely did NOT learn their lesson over the Transaction tax. They thought he was weak, they thought they could face him down, they thought they could bully him. They found that under that fairly gentle, nice guy, conciliatory and consensus building exterior, is a will of iron which will not be bent for no better reason that the vacuous aspirations of a bunch of nobodies.....
Let the games begin...
