Britain’s future must be in Europe

By Wayne David MP

I approach the job of Shadow Europe Minister confident in my belief that Britain’s future is in Europe. It is clearly in Britain’s national interest to be an active participant in the European Union, helping to set the agenda and promoting policies which will be in the interests of our people. Clearly, this is not the case under the ConDem government.

If we are to challenge effectively the government’s eurosceptic rhetoric we have to acknowledge that our starting point must be to demonstrate in practical ways how Europe is relevant and important to the everyday lives of our citizens. In these times of economic insecurity, we have to reaffirm the self-evident truth that Britain needs the European Single Market. Given that over half of Britain’s trade is now with our European partners, it would be an act of immeasurable folly to put our access to the world’s largest market in doubt. Rather than calling into question our trading relationship with the Single Market, we should be pressing hard for its completion and effective working.

At the same time, we need to move away from the impression that the EU offers benefits only to the business community. The idea of a “Social Europe” is vital if we are to reconnect with the concerns and priorities of ordinary people. Similarly, if we are to tackle successfully climate change we have to acknowledge that it is only through international co-operation, especially at a European level, can we achieve a cleaner and safer Britain in a cleaner and safer world.

For too long the impression has been given that Europe is about distant bureaucrats indulging in self-indulgent abstractions. We should recognise that treaty changes and esoteric debates about the minutiae of EU regulations do little to win over the hearts and minds of ordinary people. That is why we need to move away from an emphasis on “process” to practical “delivery”.

A case in point is the Draft Human Trafficking Directive. Most people do not have the slightest interest in the fact that this draft directive has its legal base in the 21^st Protocol in the Consolidated Treaties, as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon. What they are concerned about is that this directive is addressing an issue of enormous concern across our continent, and yet the British government is exercising an opt-out. Quite rightly, this strikes most people as absurd, especially when the government is not arguing against the content of the framework directive as such, but is mounting an opposition based on a spurious concern about setting a constitutional precedent.

Initially when the ConDem government was first elected it appeared as though the shrill rhetoric of opposition had been abandoned in favour of a more reasonable approach to the EU. However, it is worth remembering that David Cameron took the Conservatives out of the European Peoples’ Party and has obliged his MEPs to sit with the “off-stage” European Conservative and Reformist Group. And the last few weeks have seen the government under growing pressure from its increasingly vociferous Eurosceptics. Rather than face them down, the ConDem government has sought to placate them by becoming more and more antagonistic to our European partners. Increasingly, the Eurosceptic tail is wagging the government dog.

On European policy, as in many other areas, the Conservatives’ Liberal Democrat coalition partners have been totally marginalised. A party which once claimed to be the most pro-European party in British politics has been reduced to supporting a knee-jerk eurosceptism that is failing to deliver for Britain.

Going beyond their ritual criticisms of all things Europeans, the Tory die-hard Eurosceptics, with a number of newly elected MPs in their ranks, now feel emboldened enough to go a significant step further. The Tory die-hards are determined to increase their vituperative condemnation of the EU to the point that some of them are openly calling for Britain’s withdrawal.

Labour’s opposition to the Eurosceptics must be total. We are clear that it is in Britain’s national interest to engage positively with our European partners; in this increasingly global village in which we live, international co-operation must be central to our politics. That is not to say that everything which emanates from Brussels is good, far from it, ‘subsidiarity’ must always be our watchword; but we must recognise that Britain’s future lies in continuing and constructive co-operation with our partners in the European Union. In pursuing this agenda, Labour will be true to its values, it will address the issues of our time and it will point the way forward to Britain’s future.