The prime minister says he is prepared to use a referendum to forge changes that would produce a less restrictive relationship between the UK and its European partners.
“I will continue to work for a different, more flexible and less onerous position for Britain within the EU,” he says in an article in today’s Sunday Telegraph.
The prime minister stresses, however, that any referendum would not be based on a simple in/out question.
“I don’t agree with those who say we should leave,” Mr Cameron writes. “Leaving would not be in our country’s best interests.”
The two words ‘Europe’ and ‘referendum’ can go together, particularly if we are really proposing a change in how our country is governed. David Cameron
But he is clear that the eurozone crisis has created changes within the EU which will impinge on all countries within the union.
“The single currency is driving a process that will see its members take more and more steps towards fuller integration,” says the prime minister. “They are necessary if the euro is to survive, but mean that the EU and relationships within it will change.”
“We have shown not only that we can stay out of that integration, but that we can also get out of things – such as bailout funds – that we don’t like.”
The prime minister concludes: “The two words ‘Europe’ and ‘referendum’ can go together, particularly if we really are proposing a change in how our country is governed, but let us get the people a real choice first.”
Foreign Secretary William Hague endorsed Mr Cameron’s view in an interview on BBC television today.
He said there would be a “very, very powerful” case for a referendum if Europe moved towards a more federal system, as expected in response to the eurozone crisis.
“What the prime minister is saying is that the time to decide on a referendum or a general election on our relationship with Europe is when we know how Europe is going to develop over the coming months and year,” he said on the Andrew Marr Show.
Asked about the EU’s moves towards closer union, Mr Hague commented: “If it changes in that way, and once we know whether we can get a better relationship with Europe, then that is the time to make the case for a referendum – or if there is a clear division between the parties, to decide in a general election.”
Coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, who are committed pro-Europeans, responded to Mr Cameron’s article by saying he was speaking as Conservative leader, not for the coalition as a whole.
The Liberal Democrats do not believe that there is much public appetite at the moment for an abstract discission about a referendum. Lib Dem spokesman
“David Cameron has set out his views as Conservative Party leader about possible referenda following the 2015 elections, which he is perfectly entitled to do,” a Liberal Democrat spokesman said.
“However, the Liberal Democrats do not believe that there is much public appetite at the moment for an abstract discussion about a referendum on an undefined question at an unspecified time in a future parliament.
The spokesman continued: “We supported legislation which provides a cast-iron guarantee that a referendum will be held, should there be any proposal to transfer sovereignty from the UK to the EU at any time in the future, whether in this parliament or the next.”
For Labour, shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said: “These statements about the possibility of an EU referendum reveal more about David Cameron’s present weakness than his future plans.
“Ruling out a referendum one day and then ruling it back in again the next looks like a prime minister spending more time managing his party than leading the country.”