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Pro Europe pro EU Budget squeeze

November 1, 2012 11:26 am

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To be pro-European does not mean enabling the EU to escape spending cuts imposed by every member state on almost every public service.

In truth Europe would be more popular with its citizens if it showed more willingness to tighten its belt just as they are having to do.  Europe’s leaders cannot retain confidence by preaching austerity for everybody else except themselves.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg simply do not get it.  They seem to think the elites can be protected from their cuts while everyone else suffers.

So I voted last night to curb Brussels’ budget as a pro-European who believes this is in the interests of both Europe and Britain.

Peter Hain MP was Labour’s Europe Minister and UK Government representative on the Convention on the Future of Europe

Related posts:

  1. Why Labour must get off the sidelines on Europe
  2. Lib Dems urged to “Oppose this budget” by Ed Miliband
  3. Nick Clegg calls for a referendum on Europe
  4. There is no peace in sight for Europe
  5. Clegg accuses Labour of being “hypocritcal” over Europe. That’s hilarious – and wrong
  • http://twitter.com/garypepworth Gary Pepworth

    Has someone let Peter Hain have a go on Ed Miliband’s robo-sentence generator?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Graeme-Hancocks/1156294498 Graeme Hancocks

    Well written. Totally agree.

  • http://twitter.com/youngian67 Ian Young

    I thought Labour was against imposing austerity in a slump and has condemned both Merkel and Osbourne for doing so?

    While no expert on the efficiency of the EU budget, shouldn’t Labour be arguing for projects across the continent, which contribute to a greener infrastrucutre and the expansion of Europe’s science and technology base.

    It is self evident that the larger economy of scale can acheive more than national spending and Labour needs to remind itself that this was the narrative that convinced Harold Wilson, who was not a passionate Europhile, that Britain going into Europe was a good thing because key British sectors no longer had the capital, R&D budgets or ready made market to compete against the economic super power of the US.

    This argument is more relevant now than it was in the 1960s and those who rightly point to the need to the UK to concentrate on global markets should note that Cameron is in the Gulf trying to flog the Typhoon Eurofighter not the UK fighter.

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