Quote of the day
“The European Union has already come too far with the project of closer integration to stop now. However, we have to accept that not all countries share the same vision, or are comfortable proceeding at the same speed. If countries such as Britain do not want to move to the next stage we should be prepared to agree with them on a special status that would preserve close ties, but avoid them acting as a brake on the progress of others.”
- Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, author of the original EU Constitution
Witanagemot Blogs
That really stands to reason.
The pro-EU at all costs brigade paint this scenario of us turning our backs on Europe and isolating ourselves, and them punishing us accordingly, but only social and economic illiterates think such a thing would happen in real life.
This country has very close economic links to Europe, and we are aware of the benefits to be gained from movement between countries: it should be very easy to negotiate for these settlements to remain in place even if we were outside the EU altogether.
Those benefits which are attributed to the EU could be gained by bilateral agreements: essentially, they need us as much or more than we need them, so they would be at pains to reach a satisfactory agreement.
In fact, we would thrive given genuine free trade, outside the straitjacket of the CAP and the socialist nonsense inflicted on us, as a natural trading nation enjoying the benefits of what a global economy has to offer. (If only we could sort out the education system and what have you, but that’s another story).
Free trade agreements are certainly essential, but like you say the baggage that comes with it is intolerable. It’s so nice to hear the author of the original EU Constitution start to turn away from the EU project.
Free trade is essential to them as well as us, so it will more or less bring itself into existence. No one in Europe has any interest in excluding this country from markets. There may be a few glitches, but at any rate these will be outweighed by the benefits gained from casting off the aforementioned burdens.
I do think, unlike many, that there should be some form of international agreement on conserving the environment. But again, this is best not achieved through any concievable EU policy
Free trade is essential to everyone involved, but that doesn’t stop the prophets of dooms (aka supporters of the EU) from proclaiming that the Conservatives want to completely withdraw from the EU and cost us 3 million jobs in the process. No-one in their right mind wants to pull out of the EU trading area, but as Valery is saying there should still be scope for less social integration.
Nice to see you back LFAT.
I love the argument that if you want to withdraw from the EU you wouldn’t be able to trade with Europe, and our stuff wouldn’t meet the EU’s standards etc and all these jobs would be lost.
As if the countries such as USA/Canada/Australia/India/China/Japan Russia etc never traded with any European countries.