Post date: Jan 23, 2013 3:28:33 PM
In a long-delayed speech on Europe British Prime Minister David Cameron promises a referendum on UK membership of the European Union.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (JANUARY 23, 2013) (UK POOL) - British Prime Minister David Cameron promised on Wednesday (January 23) to give Britons a straight referendum choice on whether to stay in the European Union or leave, provided he wins an election in 2015.
Cameron ended months of speculation by announcing in a speech the plan for a vote sometime between 2015 and 2018, shrugging off warnings that this could imperil Britain's diplomatic and economic prospects and alienate its allies.Cameron said Britain did not want to isolate itself nor "pull up the drawbridge and retreat from the world" but that public disillusionment with the EU is at "an all-time high".
"So the next Conservative manifesto in 2015 will ask for a mandate from the British people for a Conservative government to negotiate a new settlement with our European partners in the next next parliament. It will be a relationship with the single market at its heart and when we have negotiated that new settlement we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice: to stay in the European Union on these new terms or to come out all together. It will be an in out referendum. Legislation will be drafted before the next election and if a Conservative government is elected we will introduce the enabling legislation immediately and pass it by the end of that year. And we will complete this negotiation to hold this referendum within the first half of the next parliament. It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time for us to settle this question about Britain and Europe," said Cameron told journalists in London.
Whether Cameron will ever hold the referendum remains as uncertain as the Conservatives' chances of winning the next election due in 2015.
They trail the opposition Labour party in opinion polls, and the coalition government is pushing through painful public spending cuts to try to reduce Britain's large budget deficit, likely to upset voters in the meantime.
Cameron's promise looks likely to satisfy much of his own party, which has been split on the issue, but may create uncertainty when events could put his preferred option - a looser version of full British membership - out of reach.
The move may also unsettle other EU states, such as France and Germany. European officials have already warned Cameron against treating the bloc as an "a la carte menu" from which he can pick and choose membership terms.
Cameron said he would prefer Britain, the world's sixth biggest economy, to remain inside the 27-nation EU but he also made clear he believes the EU must be radically reformed.