David Cameron Outlines Proposed Changes to UK-EU Relationship

Last weekend British Prime
Minister David Cameron wrote an article in
The Sunday Telegraph outlining changes to the British
relationship with the European Union that he hopes to pursue ahead
of the referendum on E.U. membership
he has promised to hold by the end of 2017 if the Conservatives
win the next general election.

Cameron, who is in favor of British membership in the E.U.,
wants Britons to choose between voting to leave the E.U. or for a
renegotiated membership.

Recent Yougov
polling shows that 39 percent of the British public would vote
to leave the E.U. and 41 percent would vote to stay.

Cameron’s proposed changes are the following:

• Having “Powers flowing away from Brussels, not always to
  it.”
• National parliaments being able to work together in order to
  block E.U. legislation.
• Cutting red tape for businesses in order to strengthen European
  businesses and opening up trade with the U.S. and Asia.
• Removing E.U. interference with British policing and criminal
  justice policy.
• Allowing for the free movement of people to work, but not to
  claim benefits.
• Allowing for the expansion of the E.U. without allowing for
  mass migration.
• Ensuring that the U.K. is “no longer subject to” the concept of
  an “ever closer union.”

Whatever your opinions on Cameron’s proposed changes, it is
unlikely that even if fully implemented that the reforms would be
enough to satisfy many eurosketpic Conservatives who, the political
editor of the
Financial Times rightly points out, “want a much more
fundamental scaling back of the E.U. into little more than a free
trade organisation.”

The next European elections will take place in May, and Cameron
as well as other Conservatives will be sure to keep an eye out for
how well the euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)
does. UKIP, which currently has no seats in the British House of
Commons but does have seats in the European Parliament, has been
enjoying a
degree of popularity that, if continued, could result in not
only increased support in May’s election, but also the
Conservatives losing votes at the next general election, thanks to
their comparatively weak stance on British membership of the
E.U.