The Lib Dems did something today that the party hasn’t explicitly done in a long time: it launched its campaign for the European elections focusing on the positive impact of British membership of the European Union.

Non-Lib Dems might casually read that sentence and shrug bemusedly – the Lib Dems are a pro-European party, they’ll say, of course the party’s going to campaign on a positive pro-European platform. If only it were that simple.

Too often in the past, the party has cowered behind its EU credentials, afraid our views will deter ‘soft Tories’ from casting their vote for us (especially, though not solely, in the south-west).

We’ve fought past Euro elections on Iraq and the NHS – anything in fact to avoid mentioning too loudly that we’re a proudly an internationalist party which believes the European Union is a force for good. In need of reform, yes – the CAP is a scandal which shames the whole of Europe – but the EU remains our best hope of dealing with issues which transcend national boundaries, from terrorism to recession, climate change to crime.

It’s always been a bizarre strategy, this attempt to draw a veil over the Lib Dems’ pro-Europeanism.

It is reassuring, therefore, to hear that this time it will be different, that the Lib Dems’ 2009 campaign for the European Parliament elections will put forward the pro-EU case. As Jonathan Calder notes on his Liberal England blog:

Willie is promising a very different Euro campaign from the ones the party has fought in the past. He said that the other day a Guardian journalist phoned him and said: “I’ve heard an outrageous rumour that the Lib Dems are going to fight the European elections on Europe.” It seems that rumour is true.

The sceptical will note (as Simon Titley did here on LDV) that last week’s Party Election Broadcast – ostensibly for the Euro and local elections – didn’t mention either Europe or the work of Lib Dem councils.

But there has been evidence this week at least that the party is gearing up for the campaign. Yesterday, for example, The Independent reported the party’s intention to turn up the heat on the Tories’ anti-Europeanism:

Nick Clegg will attempt to dispel suggestions that he is forging closer links with David Cameron by placing the Tories’ controversial policy on Europe at the heart of the Liberal Democrats’ election campaign. The Lib Dem leader will claim this week that the Conservatives threaten to turn Britain into a “safe-house for criminals” by planning to withdraw from European cross-border policing agencies.

And today’s official launch of the party’s European election campaign was a staunch defence of the benefits to the UK of working with our European partners. I’ve copy ‘n’ pasted the full party press release below, with its signature line:

Only the Liberal Democrats know how to provide security, jobs, and a clean environment by leading in the European Union.”

At long last, it seems, the party is embarking on a European campaign which puts the Lib Dems at the heart of Europe – so let’s just rejoice at that news.