|
Sunday, 27th January 2013
Dangerous delusions: British expectations of the future UK-EU relationship
Source: European Policy Centre
The reaction in the UK to Prime Minister David Cameron’s long-expected confirmation that the UK Government (or at least the Conservative part of it) intends to hold a referendum on EU membership by 2017 illustrates just how remote and UK-centric British public debate on the issue has become.
Many parts of the British press, as well as Conservative politicians, claimed that there was support for the UK position in other EU member states. At the same time, significant parts of British industry supported the Prime Minister, emphasising the need for reform of the EU and suggesting that the threat of a ‘Brexit’ would force the rest of Europe to fall in line. These are dangerous delusions, arising from a UK-centric perception of the European integration process.
Even where the initial reaction seemed to be more encouraging, the question is: what price will be extracted in future negotiations, for example regarding the EU’s next Multi-Annual Financial Framework? And overall, the reaction in the rest of Europe was far from supportive. While it is entirely true that virtually no-one wants to see the UK leave, there are limits to the degree to which British exceptionalism can be accommodated.
+ Direct link to document (PDF; 239 KB)
Category:
Source:
Views: 846
By Adrian Janes
Having begun his career in academic libraries, Adrian Janes is currently an Information Services Librarian with the London Borough of Havering.
In this role, he has particular responsibility for information from both the UK Government and the European Union. He wrote a detailed report on sources for the latter which was published by Free Pint Ltd. in 2007. He is also involved in training and publicising online reference resources and is a regular contributor to DocuTicker.
Adrian can be reached at adrian.janes@freepint.com
More articles by Adrian Janes »
Please note: DocuTicker's editors collect citations for full-text PDF reports freely available on the web but we do not archive these reports. When you click a link to find and/or download the report, you are leaving the DocuTicker site. DocuTicker makes no representations regarding the ongoing availability of any report or any external resource. Links were accurate as of the date of posting.
|
Mobile Strategy in the Investments Business
Webinar Will Bring Big Data Down to Size
