Tag: groot-brittannie

Zege Cameron effent pad voor referendum over brexit

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De Britse parlementsverkiezingen zijn met meer dan gewone aandacht gevolgd in Europa. Aftredend premier David Cameron beloofde de Britten immers een referendum over het lidmaatschap van de Europese Unie bij een zege. Die volksraadpleging bepaalt de toekomst van de EU.

Tien jaar geleden was het Verenigd Koninkrijk een belangrijk ankerpunt in de Europese politiek. Londen was dé bondgenoot van Duitsland in het streven naar vrijhandel, in de uitbouw van een interne markt en in de uitbreiding naar Oost-Europa. En met Parijs bouwde Londen een politiek-militaire as op. De driehoek tussen Londen, Berlijn en Parijs is compleet verdwenen. De Britten zijn de voorbije jaren steeds verder verdwenen uit het centrum van de Europese politiek.

Meer dan eens heeft de Conservatieve Britse premier David Cameron geprobeerd vanuit de zijlijn terug over te steken naar het Europese centrum. Telkens draaiden de pogingen uit op een nog groter Brits isolement in Europa.

Het begon al met het vertrek van de Britse Conservatieven uit de Europese Volkspartij, waardoor de banden met andere centrumrechtse regeringen in Europa verbroken werden. Een historische vergissing, noemde voormalig EU-president Herman Van Rompuy die beslissing.

Cameron poogde de voorbije jaren vaak te krampachtig medestanders te vinden in het Europese kamp. Zo weigerde hij deel te nemen aan het begrotingspact, dat de EU-landen verplicht te streven naar een begrotingsevenwicht. En Cameron maakte zichzelf onmogelijk met de manier waarop hij in mei vorig jaar de benoeming van Jean-Claude Juncker tot EU-Commissievoorzitter probeerde te saboteren. Zelfs kanselier Angela Merkel trok haar handen af van haar oude bondgenoot.

En toen Cameron steeds driester tekeerging tegen de vele Polen en Roemenen die als ‘welvaartstoerist’ naar het VK trekken, raakte Londen ook de steun kwijt van de Oost-Europese landen. De ‘nieuwe landen’ uit Oost-en Centraal-Europa evolueerden trouwens zelf : weg van de mercantiele Britse houding naar meer integratie. De Britten staan alleen in hun afkeer van het Europese streven naar een ‘ever closer union’.

Lees verder op De Tijd

Juncker blocks EU treaty negotiations until after 2019

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Jean-Claude Juncker has ruled out any treaty negotiations on Britain’s relationship with Europe whilst he remains president of the European Commission.

In a blow to David Cameron, this would leave the country with no prospect of change until the end of 2019, two years after he has promised the public vote. If he is re-elected it will force the Prime Minister to hold a referendum on membership of the EU without reclaiming any power from Brussels, a position which will make an exit more likely.

“No treaty change proposals are envisaged until after November 2019, the end of Mr Juncker’s mandate as president of the commission,” an official told the Times. Negotiations would not begin until the following year, the source added. It comes after a very public spat in which Mr Cameron attempted to block Mr Juncker from getting the top job last summer.

Mr Cameron has committed himself to holding a referendum by the end of 2017 in the Conservative manifesto. “We want national parliaments to be able to work together to block unwanted European legislation,” it says. “And we want an end to our commitment to ‘ever closer union’ as enshrined in the treaty to which every country has to sign up.” Mr Cameron has said that he is “convinced” that he can “fix the problems” with Britain’s relationship with Europe. However, if he returns to Downing Street it is understood that he will be told by other European leaders at a Brussels summit that they are not prepared to accept his timetable of treaty changes as early as next year.

Lees verder op The Telegraph

Boodschap is luid en duidelijk: Britten willen uit de EU

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80 per cent of Britons want to quit EU in biggest poll for 40 years. Britain is marching towards the EU exit door today after eight out of 10 people voted to leave in a historic poll.

The biggest vote on this country’s ties to ­Brussels for 40 years saw 80 per cent say they no longer want to be in Europe, the ­Daily Express can reveal. It marks a huge leap forward in this news­paper’s crusade to get Britain out of the EU. Some 14,581 people voted – 11,706 of them want the UK to quit compared with 2,725 who want to remain part of the EU.

The mini-referendum – the first on the issue since 1975 – was organised by two senior Tory backbenchers and a prospective Tory MP. They believe the overwhelming result, which will be presented to David Cameron today, will force him to bring forward his planned in-or-out vote on the UK’s future in Europe to next year instead of 2017.

The landslide result heaps further pressure on the Prime Minister to act as it comes just days after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker compared British membership of the EU to a doomed romance and suggested it was time for Britain to get a divorce.

The Tory poll was organised across three neighbouring parliamentary constituencies by Peter Bone, MP for Wellingborough, Philip Hollobone, MP for Kettering, and Tom Pursglove, who is standing as Tory candidate for Corby and East Northamptonshire at this year’s general election.

Following the count, carried out in the London offices of the Daily Express yesterday, Mr Bone said: “Eight out of 10 people who took part want to come out of Europe – that is extraordinary. “It is very, very, very clear they want to come out.” The turnout, he added, shows there is a “huge interest” in having a nationwide referendum. “People actually bothering to put X on a ballot paper clearly shows that people have been bothered to take part in a referendum and there is a huge interest in it,” he added.

Lees verder op de Daily Express

Brusselse angstzaaierij over Brexit niet overtuigend voor economisch florerend VK

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No-one thinks Britain is out of it yet. But as the UK creams the Eurozone in economic performance, we are reminded that the scaremongers in Brussels have nothing to give, and that we must get Britain out of the EU, pronto!

Compare and contrast the economies of Britain and the Eurozone. The former is the fastest growing economy in the G7 and on track to be in a spending surplus by 2019. The latter is crippled by a “one-size-fits-all” approach to economics and on the brink of yet another crisis. Is anyone still in doubt about how much better off Britain would be out of the EU?

Pro-Europeans are fond of telling us what Britain can’t do outside the European Union. In particularle, they say we can’t reclaim our position as a global trading nation without the EU. Looking back on the progress Britain has made since 2010 – halving the deficit and becoming the fastest growing major economy in the world – proves with a bit of determination the Great British Public can do anything.

By leaving the EU, we can negotiate our own free trade agreements with countries all over the world, boosting both our economy and employment.

Whilst the EU negotiates free trade agreements which include Britain, because it also caters to the interests of the other 28 member states, the process takes far longer than it should. For example, the EU has been negotiating a free trade agreement with India for the last 7 years – since 2007. And there is still no end in sight for a signature on the dotted line. Britain is not the EU’s priority.

Nor are the economic benefits of our leaving the EU confined to trade. Currently just 5 percent of British businesses trade with the EU, with the majority trading within a 5-mile radius of their location. Despite this, 100 percent of British businesses are forced to adhere to the excessive red tape spewed out of Brussels on a daily basis, in spite of the fact they neither buy from nor sell to the EU.

As Eurosceptic MEP Dan Hannan often points out, the European Commission’s own research has argued the Single Market benefits the European economy by just €120 billion a year, whilst EU regulation costs the European economy €600 billion a year.

If we left the EU and only the 5 percent of British businesses who traded with Europe were bound by their regulations, our economy would boom.

Lees deze column van Luke Stanley verder op The Commentator

Douglas Carswell’s overstap naar UKIP schok voor Britse politieke systeem

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There are very few MPs I admire more than Douglas Carswell. He is principled, decent, and has gone into politics for all the right reasons. He believes in all the things to which ordinary politicians pay lip service, but in reality frighten them to death. Above all, Mr Carswell is an advocate of popular democracy: that is, that politics is an activity which concerns ordinary voters and not the views of the Westminster elite. He is a fountain of original ideas, many of which are to be found in his very important book The Plan: Twelve months to renew Britain. It is very interesting to note that the book was co-written with the brilliant conservative MEP (and fellow Telegraph blogger) Daniel Hannan.

But Mr Carswell cannot be dismissed as a naive or out of touch intellectual. Let us remember that it was five years ago that it was Carswell who set in motion the movement which swept Speaker Martin from office in the wake of the expenses scandal.

This is why I believe that Mr Carswell’s decision to quit the Tory party and join Nigel Farage’s Ukip is a seismic political event. He cannot be compared to the ordinary self-interested political defections, for instance Shaun Woodward or Quentin Davies’ departure from the Conservatives to New Labour, in 2001 and 2007 respectively. Mr Carswell, and this is completely terrifying for David Cameron, is acting out of conviction rather than self-interest. It is greatly to the credit of Mr Carswell that, in striking contrast to Woodward or Davies, he has called a by-election to fight his Essex constituency, where he may even stand a chance of success. If he wins, he will have broken every known rule of politics. It has always been assumed that the individual vote which an incumbent MP can attract is a fraction of that commanded by the party which he represents. If Mr Carswell carries Clacton, a political convulsion will have taken place.

Lees deze column van Peter Oborne verder op The Telegraph
Lees ook: Douglas Carswell – It’s time for change

Meer Britten voor Brexit

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De afkeer van de Britten tegen de EU is toegenomen, sinds de benoeming van Jean-Claude Juncker tot nieuwe commissievoorzitter tegen de wil van hun premier David Cameron is doorgedrukt.

Dit blijkt zondag uit de eerste opiniepeiling sinds de aanwijzing van de omstreden Luxemburger vrijdag. Maar liefst 47 procent van de Britten zou in een referendum ervoor stemmen om de unie te verlaten, aldus de enquête in opdracht van de krant Mail on Sunday. Slechts 39 procent wil in de unie blijven.

Bij een peiling eerder deze maand was nog 44 procent van de ondervraagden voor het Britse lidmaatschap van de unie. Slechts 36 procent sprak zich uit voor de ‘Brexit’, zoals de breuk met Brussel wordt genoemd.

Bron: Europa Nu

Britse politici wijzen Juncker af

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De Luxemburgse oud-premier Jean-Claude Juncker hoeft niet op Britse steun te rekenen voor zijn streven om voorzitter van de Europese Commissie te worden.

Na premier David Cameron heeft de liberaal-democratische vicepremier Nick Clegg zich tegen de benoeming van Juncker tot voorzitter van het dagelijks bestuur van de Europese Unie gekeerd. Ook Labour, de grootste oppositiepartij in het Britse Lagerhuis, wijst de Luxemburger af.

Lees verder op De Volkskrant