Mark Briggs :
(From previous issue)
But the Juncker reforms have not yet convinced British politicians, who tend to judge the EU’s performance solely by its ability to generate economic growth. At the same time, most of them are wary that reforms to boost political and economic integration in the eurozone will create a two-tiered Europe, leaving Britain on the sidelines.
Trade is another area where Britain has traditionally had strong interests. However, while the UK is a big supporter of free trade, there are widespread concerns that the EU-US trade agreement, TTIP, will negatively impact on the National Health Service, described by former chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson as “the closet thing the English have to a religion”.
According to Swidlicki there are a host of economic reforms that, although facing resistance in some member states, have cross party support in the UK such as “the need to make the EU more dynamic and economically competitive” and the prevention of eurozone members dominating the single market.
“Key reforms are likely to include an aggressive drive to cut EU red tape, to reform and re-focus the EU budget, to properly open the EU market for services and to complete the TTIP free trade deal with the US.”
Sunder Katwala says of all those issues, TTIP is likely to prove the most controversial. The Green Party will seek to raise the profile of TTIP negotiations as it seeks differentiation between itself and the other parties (The Greens oppose TTIP), but Katwala warns, “It is currently an issue much better known to activists than voters.”
At the last election, David Cameron said he would reduce net immigration down to the tens of thousands per year “no ifs, no buts.”
The latest figures show net immigration to the UK 298,000 – 54,000 higher than it was when David Cameron came to power in 2010. The Conservatives blame a lack of control over EU migration and have said they want to curb EU immigration if reelected in a May 2015 general election.
In January 2014, the EU labour market was fully opened to citizens from Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU in 2007, fueling concerns in the UK and other countries about a surge of immigration from Eastern Europe.
In a major speech made last November, Cameron said the EU should change its rules on immigration, warning he would “rule nothing out” including campaigning to leave the Union if Britain’s concerns fall on deaf ears.
Eurosceptics want to stop what they regard as welfare abuse by immigrants who are putting pressure on local services, such as health and housing, without having paid into the system through taxes.
Public opinion appears divided over the merits of free movement, with several EU countries currently debating whether this has led to “benefit tourism”.
In 2013, the interior ministers of the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria sent a letter to the European Commission warning that some cities had come under considerable strain from EU migrants claiming welfare benefits.
However, proposals for a cap on immigration provoked strong warnings from the European Commission, which regards freedom of movement with the EU as sacrosanct.
Introducing restrictions on the principle of free-movement, Swidlicki points out, is something neither Switzerland or Norway have achieved.
“Although the proposals set out by David Cameron are more far-reaching than similar proposals set out by Labour and the Liberal Democrats they all agree on this basic principle,” says Swidlicki.
“These will require changes to EU laws backed by a majority of member states which again will prove challenging, but since it would keep in place the principle of free movement itself, a compromise should be achievable.”
Such compromises may well involve limiting access to the benefit system for new migrants says Camino Mortera-Martinez, Research Fellow in Justice and Home Affairs at the Centre for European Reform.
“Germany is already discussing a law to limit the time that EU citizens can stay in the country looking for a job, which is very much in line with Cameron’s approach to EU job-seekers. However, any reforms would still meet the resistance of the European Parliament and the European Commission.”
The ruling Conservative party had initially warned that Britain would opt-out from all EU matters related to Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). Since the 2009 adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, those matters – where Britain used to have a veto – are now subject to qualified majority voting in the Council, with the European Parliament now upgraded to a full co-legislator role.
Britain, which does not participate fully in the implementation of certain JHA measures, threatened to opt-out entirely from EU cooperation on police and criminal matters, saying it wanted to regain its national sovereignty on those matters.
UK sources said Britain had problems with the European arrest warrant, the Schengen Information System, and some EU agencies such as Europol, Eurojust, along with a few others.
The Centre for European Reform, a British think tank, warned the decision would have “major implications” for Britain’s security as the opt-out would make it more difficult for British police to conduct international investigations and convict criminals abroad.
These warnings have not gone unheard. At the end of 2014, the UK opted out and then immediately back again into 35 Justice and Home Affairs measure, including the European Arrest Warrant, Europol and Eurojust.
Camino Mortera-Martinez, a research fellow on justice and home affairs at the Centre for European Reform (CER), says the debate has now moved on.
“Even the Conservatives seem to be aware of the importance of police and judicial co-operation to fight cross-border crime,” she says. However, there is a growing exhaustion towards the British ‘pick and choose’ approach to judicial cooperation.
After the January 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, the current tendency seems to be more intelligence sharing, not less, said Mortera-Martinez. “UKIP’s argument on damaging the special relationship of the UK with the US is not likely to be accepted by other European actors, who value the UK’s leading role in the fight against international crime,” she said.
Earlier this year the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, reiterated his desire for an EU army.
The call was resolutely rejected in the UK.
With renegotiation and reform of the EU being promoted by all parties, questions over what the EU is and now it goes about its business have become increasingly pressing.
The UK’s future relationship with the EU with is much debated among all the parties, but equally pressing is the need to know what the EU will look like and how it will act in the coming years.
Following the attack on Charlie Hebdo, and the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine, security has become an important election issue.
The Conservatives and UKIP want to be seen as tough on security and crime matters, but such a stance puts them at odds with their aversion to deeper EU integration.
Parties which back closer integration need to be careful they are not viewed as handing over responsibility for Britain’s security to foreign nationals.
The issue of migration has increasingly become entwined with EU membership in the minds of voters. The Conservative party pledged at the last election to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, but failed to meet this target.
Already not a member of the Schengen zone, attempts to place limits on the free movement of people is unlikely to receive support from other EU members, so parties are searching for domestic policies that can help reduce immigration from within the EU.
Some see secretive negotiations and an example of the EU over reaching. Others see it as a re-focusing on economic principles which lay at the heart of a union which began life as a common market.
The single market is a founding principle of the European Union. Many in the UK feel what the EU has moved away from its founding economic ideal.
But, with financial services key to the UK economy and the country sitting outside the eurozone there are concerns the caucusing among eurozone members could lead to a two tierd single market with adverse affects on those outside the single currency.
The EU Energy Union is part of the political response to the threat to EU gas supplies being cut off. The majority of Russian gas imports to the EU, about 30% of its annual needs, goes through Ukraine. In 2009, Russia turned off the taps, causing shortages in the EU. Pooling of the continent’s energy resources should increase energy security among member states.
The UK last held a referendum about Europe in 1975, when the EU was focused on economic cooperation and called itself the European Economic Community (EEC).
Proposed votes on euro membership and the EU’s Lisbon Treaty never materialised.
When David Cameron announced his support for an in/out referendum, it drew the other parties into a debate about whether, and in which circumstances, they would call a referendum if they ended up in power after May’s general election. Climate action is more important than the single market Juncker’s three steps to improve the Commission’s standing in the EU Is Europe’s economic stagnation inevitable or policy-driven?
Courtesy: EurActiv.com
(Concluded)
