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Cameron's Europe essays Cameron’s Europe: Can the Conservatives achieve their EU objectives? # Charles Grant about the CER The Centre for European Reform is a think-tank devoted to improving the quality of the debate on the European Union. It is a forum for people with ideas from Britain and across the continent to discuss the many political, economic and social challenges facing Europe. It seeks to work with Cameron’s similar bodies in other European countries, North America and elsewhere in the world. The CER is pro-European but not uncritical. It regards European integration as largely beneficial but recognises that in many respects the Union does not work well. The CER therefore aims to promote new ideas for reforming the European Union. Europe: Director: CHARLES GRANT ADVISORY BOARD Can the GIULIANO AMATO.............................................................................................. Former Italian Prime Minister ANTONIO BORGES..................................................................................................... Former Dean of INSEAD NICK BUTLER .................................................................. Senior Policy Adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown IAIN CONN ................................... Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, Refining & Marketing, BP p.l.c. LORD HANNAY.................................................................................... Former Ambassador to the UN & the EU Conservatives LORD HASKINS .......................................................................................... Former Chairman, Northern Foods FRANÇOIS HEISBOURG................................................ Senior Adviser, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique WOLFGANG ISCHINGER.................................................................... Global Head, Government Affairs, Allianz LORD KERR (CHAIR) ................. Chairman, Imperial College London and Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc achieve their CAIO KOCH-WESER................................................................................ Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank Group FIORELLA KOSTORIS PADOA SCHIOPPA............................................... Professor, La Sapienza University, Rome RICHARD LAMBERT........................................................ Director General, The Confederation of British Industry PASCAL LAMY......................................................... Director General, WTO and Former European Commissioner EU objectives? DAVID MARSH.......................................................................................... Chairman, London & Oxford Group DOMINIQUE MOÏSI................................................ Senior Adviser, Institut Français des Relations Internationales JOHN MONKS.............................................................. General Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation BARONESS PAULINE NEVILLE-JONES......................... National Security Adviser to the leader of the opposition CHRISTINE OCKRENT............................................................................ CEO, Audiovisuel Extérieur de la France Charles Grant STUART POPHAM............................................................................................. Senior Partner, Clifford Chance LORD ROBERTSON............................ Deputy Chairman, Cable and Wireless and former Secretary General, NATO ROLAND RUDD......................................................................................... Chairman, Business for New Europe KORI SCHAKE............................................. Research fellow, Hoover Institution and Bradley Professor, West Point LORD SIMON ............................................................ Former Minister for Trade and Competitiveness in Europe PETER SUTHERLAND....................................................... Chairman, BP p.l.c. and Goldman Sachs International LORD TURNER ..................................................................................... Chairman, Financial Services Authority With contributions by ANTÓNIO VITORINO...................................................................................... Former European Commissioner IGOR YURGENS..................................................................... Chairman of the Board, Bank Renaissance Capital Katinka Barysch and Hugo Brady Published by the Centre for European Reform (CER), 14 Great College Street, London, SW1P 3RX Telephone +44 20 7233 1199, Facsimile +44 20 7233 1117, [email protected], www.cer.org.uk © CER DECEMBER 2009 # ISBN 978 1 901229 93 6 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Contents Charles Grant has been director of the Centre for European Reform since its foundation in 1998. Previously he worked for Euromoney and The Economist (as its City correspondent, Brussels correspondent and defence editor). His biography of Jacques Delors, ‘Inside the House that Jacques built’, was published by Nicholas About the author Brealey in 1994. He was a director and trustee of the British Council from 2002 to 2008. About the other contributors Author’s acknowledgements ABOUT THE OTHER CONTRIBUTORS Cameron’s Europe: Katinka Barysch is deputy director of the Centre for European Can the Conservatives achieve their EU objectives? 1 Reform. She writes about energy policy, Russia, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Hugo Brady is a senior research fellow at the CER. He Box: Sovereignty and Germany’s constitutional court 9 works mainly on justice and home affairs, and EU institutions. Box: Britain’s special deal on justice and home affairs 16 Box: ‘Social Europe’ loses momentum 22 AUTHOR’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank those who have commented on drafts or helped in other ways, including Katinka Barysch, Hugo Brady, John Kerr, John Monks, Clara Marina O’Donnell, Denis MacShane, Simon Tilford, Stephen Tindale, Tomas Valasek and Philip Whyte. I have also been helped by many Conservatives, who would probably prefer to remain anonymous. Thanks to Kate Mullineux for design and layout. # Copyright of this publication is held by the Centre for European Reform. You may not copy, reproduce, republish or circulate in any way the content from this publication except for your own personal and non- commercial use. Any other use requires the prior written permission of the Centre for European Reform. Cameron’s Europe: Can the Conservatives achieve their EU objectives? If the opinion polls are right, Britain’s Conservative Party stands a good chance of returning to power in the spring of 2010, after 13 years in opposition. All over Europe, politicians and officials want to know what kind of EU policies the Conservatives will pursue if they win the next general election. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, gave some indications in a speech on November 4 th 2009. Nevertheless continental Europeans still have very little knowledge of the current Conservative Party and its attitudes. Similarly, many Conservatives are out of touch with how the EU has changed during their long years in opposition. Deprived of ministerial office, senior Conservatives tend to lack the personal contacts with top European politicians that earlier generations of Conservative leaders enjoyed. And their party’s growing euroscepticism has cut them off from mainstream centre-right networks on the continent. Continental Europeans who recall John Major’s government remember that it contained not only eurosceptics but also heavyweight pro-EU figures like Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine and Douglas Hurd. Since the time of the Major government, however, not only the Conservative Party but also the country at large have become much more eurosceptic. Of all the 27 EU member-states, Britain is the most eurosceptic. According to the latest Eurobarometer survey, only 32 per cent of 2 Cameron’s Europe 3 Britons think their country has benefited from the EU. The next rather than an ideologue and he sees that the British national lowest scores are in Hungary (34 per cent) and Latvia (38 per cent), interest requires constructive engagement with EU partners. while the average across the EU is 56 per cent. Asked if the EU is a Cameron needs to be supported against those who wish to provoke good thing, only 28 per cent of Britons say it is, compared with 53 a crisis in Britain’s relations with the EU. per cent in the EU as a whole. 1 In the June 2009 European elections, the United Kingdom Independence Party, which is Many Conservatives do not know how much the EU has changed committed to leaving the EU, came second, with 17 per cent of the since the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major. In 1 Eurobarometer 71, vote, ahead of Labour on 15 per cent those days, France and Germany could to a large extent set the September 2009. (with the far-right British National Party EU’s agenda. Britain had to fight hard to thwart anti- on 6 per cent). This is not the place for an Americanism within the EU. The EU story was largely about the 2 Charles Grant, ‘Why is Britain analysis of why Britain is so eurosceptic, creation of the euro and whether Britain should join it, rows over eurosceptic?’, CER essay, but British euroscepticism seems to be a social policy, and federalist pressure for stronger institutions. December 2008. growing force. 2 But the enlargement of the EU – to Austria, Finland and Sweden Continental Europeans who fear that a Conservative government in 1995, and then to 12 Central, Eastern and Southern European will disrupt the EU have been partially reassured by the relatively states in 2004-07 – has dramatically changed its character. emollient
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