MPs doubt Cameron's EU drive can succeed
LONDON |
(Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron will have difficulty persuading fellow European Union members to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the bloc before a vote on its EU membership, an influential parliamentary committee said on Tuesday.
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Instead of seeking special treatment for Britain, the cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee said Cameron would get a more sympathetic response if he campaigned for Europe-wide reforms.
Britain's 40-year EU membership is in doubt after Cameron promised in January to claw back powers from Brussels and hold an "in/out" referendum by 2017, if he wins the next election in 2015.
While most EU states appear to want Britain to stay in the bloc, they would not accept a new deal at any price, the MPs said in a report scrutinising government policy on Europe.
"We are sceptical that other member states would renegotiate existing EU law so as to allow the UK alone to reduce its degree of integration," they said. "UK proposals for pan-EU reforms are likely to find a more favourable reception than requests for further 'special treatment'," it added.
The committee stressed it was too early for a full assessment of Britain's renegotiation bid because Cameron had "not spelled out in any detail the content of the 'new settlement'."
Under pressure from eurosceptics in his Conservative Party and a hardening anti-EU mood among around half of British voters, Cameron last year set up a review of the balance of powers held in London and Brussels.
Cameron envisages a looser, more flexible relationship with the EU in which "power must be able to flow back to member states, not just away from them".
CHERRY-PICKING
Anti-EU campaigners in Britain see it as an over-powerful and meddling institution that has leached power from the Westminster parliament and undermined Britain's sovereignty.
Cameron's broad targets for the repatriation of power include "spurious regulation", as well as rules on working hours, the environment, social affairs and crime.
Cameron's European policy has widened divisions among Conservatives, upset his pro-EU coalition partners, the Lib Dems, and has failed to halt the rise of the UK Independence Party, which campaigns to leave the bloc.
The euro zone crisis and growing criticism of EU bodies across the continent mean reform is likely, the committee concluded. However, it said Cameron must contend with the fact that all 27 members have a stake in EU law.
Germany and France have already warned Cameron they will not allow Britain to cherry-pick from EU rules. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has described the repatriation of powers as a "false promise wrapped in a Union Jack".
The committee said EU members would be wary of treaty change to accommodate a new deal for Britain because the process would be long and hard to ratify.
Cameron used a foreign policy speech on Monday to restate the case for Britain's continued membership of the EU and other global bodies, such as NATO and the Commonwealth.
"It is no use hiding away from the world - we've got to roll our sleeves up and compete in it," he said before a meeting of G8 leaders in Northern Ireland on June 17-18.
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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