HIS BROKEN PROMISES
DAVID CAMERON has always promised the British people he would win a host of concessions from Brussels that would convince them to vote to stay in the EU. In his Bloomberg speech in 2013, when he offered to hold an in-out referendum on the issue, he was emphatic about reform and called for a full EU treaty renegotiation. Here, we highlight some of his past promises to show the huge gap between what Mr Cameron said and the minuscule reforms he is likely to achieve — and which may still be voted down by MEPs . . .
NEW EU SETTLEMENT
‘WE NEED a real choice between leaving or being part of a new settlement in which Britain shapes and respects the rules of the single market, but is protected by fair safeguards, and free of the spurious regulation which damages Europe’s competitiveness.’ ‘THOSE of us outside the Euro recognise that those in it are likely to need to make some big institutional changes.’
BRITISH LION TO ROAR
‘THEY (Brussels) want a federalist pussycat, not a British lion. It’s up to us to make sure that lion roars — because when it does, no one can beat us.’ ‘ WE NEED fundamental, farreaching change.’ ‘AT SOME stage in the next few years, the EU will need to agree on Treaty change to make the changes needed for the long-term future of the Euro and to entrench the diverse, competitive, democratically accountable Europe that we seek. I believe the best way will be a new Treaty . . . ’
INEFFECTIVE BRUSSELS
‘WE URGENTLY need to address the sclerotic, ineffective decisionmaking that is holding us back.’
‘IN THE global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive, peripheral European institutions?’ ‘CAN we carry on with an organisation that has a multi-billion-pound budget but not enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven’t worked?’
BONFIRE OF RED TAPE
‘IT’S neither right nor necessary to claim the single market requires the working hours of British hospital doctors to be set in Brussels, irrespective of the views of British parliamentarians and practitioners.’ ‘ WE SHOULD have a clear imperative, which is that we need to bring back the powers over social policy and employment policy that are causing so much damage to British business.’ ‘ I WANT us to be pushing to exempt Europe’s smallest entrepreneurial companies from more EU directives.’
NO ACCESS TO BENEFITS
‘IF A European Union migrant’s child is living abroad, then they should receive no child benefit, no matter how long they have worked in the UK and no matter how much tax they have paid.’ ‘WE WANT European Union jobseekers to have a job offer before they come here . . . if an EU jobseeker has not found work within six months, then they will be required to leave’.
STRONG TERROR LAWS
SAID he wanted increased powers to strengthen Britain’s defences to ‘stop terrorists and other serious foreign criminals who pose a threat to our society from using spurious human rights arguments to prevent deportation’. PROMISED to negotiate ‘a complete opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights’. VOWED to ‘limit . . . the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction over criminal law.’ ‘IT WILL be a top priority for the next Conservative government to restore social and employment legislation to national control.’
SAVE SOVEREIGNTY
‘POWER must flow back to the member states.’ ‘IT IS national parliaments which are, and will remain, the true source of real democratic legitimacy and accountability in the EU.’ ‘WE NEED to examine whether the balance is right in so many areas where the EU has legislated, including on the environment, social affairs and crime.’ ‘WE WANT national parliaments to be able to work together to block unwanted European legislation.’