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David Miliband

Foreign Secretary

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Friday 06 March, 2009

Euroscepticism is Yesterday's Creed

There's some wishful thinking in the air, judging by the less than rapturous acclaim for the European response to the financial crisis, but Gideon Rachman's piece in the FT this week  on this theme - disowning his own euroscepticism - is worth reading. His basic argument, that Europe's economic, democratic and social/environmental gains need to be defended, and that this can only be done from within the tent, and with proposals for renewal, is absolutely right.

There are lessons for eurosceptics and europhiles in the financial crisis, and I will look at them in a speech on Monday at the Policy Network conference at the LSE: "An EU Fit for Purpose in a Modern Age"    My argument will be that Europe's gains can only be preserved by further policy reform. It's an argument for European engagement, not isolation.

And as the Prime Minister pointed out in his speech to the US Congress this week , bilateral and multilateral relationships across the Atlantic are mutually reinforcing. It is good for Britain for the EU-US relationship to be close and effective. Every US president since John Kennedy has supported a more united Europe. Barack Obama is no exception. We cut off our nose to spite our face by thinking that we preserve the strength of the US-UK relationship if we neglect the EU-US relationship.

Posted at 17:19 06 March 2009 by David Miliband  |  Comments[2]

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Sadly the majority in the United Kingdom who are negative towards the European Union will not be reading such papers as the FT and instead depend on all of their information from papers like The Sun, which forms its position on Europe because of the papers leadership. The Citizenship lessons introduced by labour several years ago which are meant to cover things like British, European and Global citizenship seem like the best way of bringing about a more pro Europe society in the long term. I support the European Union but it is a good thing we remain somewhat Eurosceptic. When we look at how some European countries passed the Lisbon treaty with out a second thought and very little comment from their people, it goes to show being too "pro Europe" could be rather dangerous if government just accepts anything agreed in Brussels with very little consideration.

Posted by BritishWatcher on March 06, 2009 at 08:42 PM GMT #

EU does have tensions, ideological rivalries, and more seriously lack of commitment. But, the future world is not growing towards exclusion or isolation. Furthermore, The American global presence with its strategic global reach is now irreversible. In reality, EU has no option other than finding out more united approaches to deal with increasing domestic, regional and global challenges. Strong transatlantic ties are crucial for this task.

Posted by Chamila Liyanage on March 09, 2009 at 11:04 AM GMT #

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