EU referendum: Cameron spells out his demands, saying reform is not Mission Impossible
Prime Minister David Cameron will insist that his European Union reform agenda is achievable when he spells out his top demands today.
In a major speech this morning at Chatham House, Cameron will say that his desired changes to Britain’s relationship with the European Union are “eminently resolvable, with the requisite political will and political imagination”.
Claiming that he has demonstrated previous success in negotiating with Europe by cutting the EU budget, Cameron will say that he has four objectives “at the heart” of his renegotiation efforts, including protecting the single market for non-Eurozone countries, boosting competitiveness of the entire EU, enacting “legally binding and irreversible changes”exempting Britain from the notion of “ever-closer union” while bolstering the powers of national parliaments, and controlling migration from other EU member states.
“There will be those who say – here and elsewhere in the EU – that we are embarked on Mission Impossible,” Cameron will say, adding, “I say: why?”
Acknowledging the political challenges of securing treaty change, Cameron will add: “I do not deny that seeking changes which require the agreement of 27 other democracies, all with their own concerns, is a big task.
“But an impossible one? I do not believe so for a minute,” he will say.
“When you look at the challenges facing European leaders today, the changes that Britain is seeking do not fall in the box marked ‘impossible’.”
Cameron will separately send a public letter to the President of European Council Donald Tusk today setting out his renegotiation objectives, which Downing Street says will “set off” a formal negotiation process with officials in Brussels and other European leaders.
Cameron and chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne have already met one-on-one with officials from all 27 other member states throughout the summer and autumn, setting out their case for reform. The UK government’s renegotiation efforts are also expected to take centre stage at the next EU leaders summit in December.
Cameron has promised an in/out referendum by the end of 2017, but has yet to set a date for the vote.