Cameron making a “historic mistake” -Cameron Warned by Barroso And Clegg On EU Migration Plan European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso attacked Prime Minister David Cameron’s pledge to restrict EU migration, and warned that the U.K. wouldn’t keep its free-trade rights if it left the EU. Barroso used a speech in London today to say Cameron was making a “historic mistake” in trying to end free movement within the EU, and that while European partners want to keep Britain in the bloc, “there are red lines.” The premier wrote yesterday that he planned to put EU immigration “right at the heart of our negotiations in Europe.” Cameron’s European policy has been driven in a more hostile direction since 2010 both by his own lawmakers and by the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party’s electoral success. In 2013, he responded to the pressure by pledging to renegotiate Britain’s terms of membership and then call an in-out referendum by the end of 2017. That wasn’t enough to stop two of his lawmakers defecting to UKIP this year. Conservatives including Mayor of London Boris Johnson have argued that the U.K. could leave the EU but maintain free-trade arrangements. Barroso cast doubt on those claims. “The difficult issue is to say how Britain outside the EU could have the single market,” he said. “Those who are in favor of a British exit should come out and say what is the alternative, because it will become clear there won’t be a good alternative.” Coalition Critics At a separate event 700 yards away, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, from the pro-European Liberal Democrat Party, also attacked Cameron’s proposal. He said the Conservative Party’s European policy was driven by the rise of UKIP, which this month won its first elected seat in Parliament and aims to win another next month. The Tory Party, Clegg told reporters, “is being pushed to the exit -- that’s where it all ends up. If that’s where they’re headed they should probably come clean now. This isn’t a game.” Meanwhile Clegg’s Liberal Democrat colleague, Business Secretary Vince Cable, told reporters that free movement was “a British negotiating achievement and very much to the benefit of the U.K.” He said the migrants arriving in Britain are “younger workers, often highly skilled, who make a net positive contribution to the Treasury.” Cable, speaking at an event in London hosted by the Confederation of British Industry, said doubts created about membership of the single market’’ were damaging investment. At the same event, Graham Cole, chairman of helicopter maker AgustaWestland Ltd., said it was “extremely important” Britain stay in the EU. “I am concerned about the turbulence running up to a referendum,” Cole said. “To consider how do we run our company in a situation where we wouldn’t be part of the EU, it would be awful.” Tory Business Minister Matt Hancock replied to Cole that a referendum “doesn’t create uncertainty, it resolves uncertainty.” He said such uncertainty was “already there” because of the “unhappy relationship” the U.K. had with Europe.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 10:53:08 +0000
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