Tag Archives: european union

Stephen Tall

Did you know the Lib Dems have lost half a million voters to Ukip? Here’s what I think it means.

By Stephen Tall | Tue 18th December 2012 - 4:55 pm

UKIP logoConservative peer Lord Ashcroft — who, as ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie has noted before, spends more on polling than all three parties combined — has today published the latest survey looking at the timely issue of the threat of Ukip. Nigel Farage’s party is now regularly polling around the level of the Lib Dems, seemingly taking voters disproportionately from the Tories, contributing to lengthening Labour poll leads.

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 51 Comments
Fiona Hall MEP

Fiona Hall MEP writes … Paying the world’s poorest people for their precious resources

By Fiona Hall MEP | Tue 11th December 2012 - 10:27 am

The battle to ensure that companies publish what they pay for developing countries’ natural resources has finally reached the home straight.

The EU Accounting and Transparency Directives are in the ‘trialogue’ stage, a negotiation between the EU Parliament, Commission and Council to decide upon the final form that the legislation will take.  Liberal Democrats have been involved in this process from the beginning  – I wrote the report for the European
Parliament’s Development Committee  and am now joined by Jo Swinson, as she continues to maintain the UK Government’s strong leadership stance in ensuring that the final legislation includes the necessary measures to combat corruption.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 1 Comment
Paul Haydon

Opinion: Focusing on the size of the EU budget is side-lining the wider issue of what it is spent on

By Paul Haydon | Wed 28th November 2012 - 2:47 pm

The outcome of the EU budget summit last week was not as bad as it could have been. Cameron did not wield his veto, as he was threatening to just a few days before. And while EU Leaders did not reach a final agreement, progress was made towards reaching a compromise at the next Council meeting in early 2013. Crucially, the UK was able to drum up support for a real-terms freeze amongst like-minded member states such as Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. This is …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 10 Comments
Catherine Bearder

Catherine Bearder MEP writes … The British media is in love with the Euromyth

By Catherine Bearder | Tue 27th November 2012 - 9:02 am

The invented tales about European Union policy have the ability to amuse and terrify the public.

But Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP for South East England, explains why she has launched her Euromyth Buster campaign to make sure fact is not substituted for fantasy.

Let’s face it, is it any surprise people in the UK get exasperated by the European Union? They are swamped with erroneous tales of alleged devious directives and barmy plans from ‘meddling Brussels bureaucrats’. I have my favourites.

  • There was the ‘fear’

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 16 Comments
Stephen Tall

4-in-10 Lib Dem voters inclined to leave EU, says poll – a reminder why our pitch should be ‘In Europe to reform the EU’

By Stephen Tall | Sun 18th November 2012 - 4:20 pm

‘If a referendum were held on the UK’s membership of the European Union, how do you think you would vote?’ That’s the question posed by polling company Opinium and published today in The Observer — with the following result reported by the paper:

Almost four out of 10 Liberal Democrat voters support leaving the EU, according to a new poll which shows that hardline euroscepticism has taken hold in Britain’s most pro-European party. An Opinium/Observer survey has found that 39% of Lib Dem supporters

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds and Polls | Also tagged | 23 Comments
Fiona Hall MEP

Fiona Hall writes: EU exit would jeopardise Britain’s global trade

By Fiona Hall MEP | Tue 6th November 2012 - 4:24 pm

For years Europhobes have been propagating the misconception that Britain has to choose between the EU and the rest of the world.

 However, this ‘choice’ between the EU and the rest of the world is a false choice. Indeed, being part of the EU is the best way to increase Britain’s trade with emerging markets.  As Nick Clegg pointed out in his speech on Europe last week, the EU has free trade agreements in force with 46 countries and negotiations with another 78 countries are currently under way. In addition, the European Parliament last week lent its weight to launching new negotiations with the USA and Japan.

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 25 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Menzies Campbell – Europe is the glass jaw of the Tory party. It has taken a hit

By NewsHound | Mon 5th November 2012 - 4:54 pm

In the Independent, Sir Menzies Campbell gives his perspective on the latest Tory shenanighans on Europe:

Europe is the glass jaw of the Tory party. Some of their dissidents have been heard to say that Mr Cameron should behave like Margaret Thatcher. But it was her “No, no, no” to Europe which was the straw that

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Giles Goodall

Opinion: A storm in a jam jar – my top 5 Euromyths

By Giles Goodall | Mon 29th October 2012 - 11:53 am

Those of us familiar with the EU are used to its complicated processes, obscure acronyms and often unfathomable procedures. We sometimes forget that it is still a hybrid project that no-one has ever tried before: a multinational, multilingual experiment in international cooperation where countries decide by common accord to pool decision-making in certain areas and under certain conditions for their own mutual benefit.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 30 Comments
James King

Opinion: Four point plan for a liberal, democratic Europe

By James King | Sat 27th October 2012 - 2:35 pm

Europe is rising up the political agenda. It’s an issue that could bring down David Cameron or break-up the coalition. Yet the Liberal Democrats are strangely silent. The EU didn’t appear on the Brighton conference agenda and we no longer have a Minister in the Foreign Office. We need to develop a vision for a liberal, democratic EU and get smart about fighting for it.

Here’s my four point plan:

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , and | 47 Comments
Paul Haydon

Opinion: We shouldn’t take peace in Europe for granted

By Paul Haydon | Tue 16th October 2012 - 3:50 pm

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU on Friday was met with predictable derision from the likes of Nigel Farage, who described it the decision as “baffling,” and leader of the Tory MEPs  Martin Callanan, who said it was “a little late for an April Fools’ Joke.”

Admittedly, the current social unrest across Southern Europe made the award seem a little incongruous, especially coming just days after Angela Merkel’s visit to Greece was met with violent protests in Athens.

Yet in fact, this was …

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 18 Comments
Mark Pack

The European Union deserves the Nobel Peace Prize

By Mark Pack | Sun 14th October 2012 - 10:50 am

Something I wrote back last autumn is rather applicable to my views of the Nobel Peace Prize going to the European Union:

Sat on a shelf a few metres away from me is a box containing the various military medals won by my relatives over previous generations. The medals criss-cross Europe, coming from different countries, over the three wars that had a German-French conflict at their centre. To British eyes that count of three wars may seem odd at first, but for the German and French politicians building new European structures in the aftermath of the Second World War, their

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | Also tagged | 39 Comments
Mark Pack

Nick Clegg blocks Tory bid to opt out of European policing measures

By Mark Pack | Sun 14th October 2012 - 8:25 am

More on the story here.

Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged and | 4 Comments
Mark Valladares

Lib Dems vote against 6.8% increase of EU 2013 budget

By Mark Valladares | Thu 11th October 2012 - 10:22 am

Liberal Democrats in the Budget Committee of the European Parliament voted against a proposed 6.85% increase in the EU 2013 budget yesterday. George Lyon, MEP for Scotland and Vice President of the Budget Committee, said:

There is still much uncertainty over the Commission’s estimates on what it needs in 2013 to pay the bills from Member States. The prudent approach at a time when there is huge

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged | 6 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Guy Verhofstadt MEP – Crisis shows why EU must renew its vows

By Nick T | Thu 11th October 2012 - 9:24 am

Writing in the Financial Times, liberal leader in the European Parliament Guy Verhofstadt and his colleague and fellow contributor to this new book Daniel Cohn-Bendit (leader of the Greens) set out their vision for the future of the EU after the Eurozone crisis:

The crisis has shown up the key weaknesses in economic governance at EU level where a monetary policy was introduced without a parallel fiscal policy. Unlike other global currencies such as the

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
Andrew Wigley

‘The devil gets all the best tunes’ – South West sentiment to the EU

By Andrew Wigley | Tue 9th October 2012 - 3:27 pm

We all know Britain’s relationship with Europe is a fault-line for the Conservative party.  Equally, we know that Labour has its own divisions. In both parties, the split is between pro-Europeans and anti-Europeans, between staying in Europe or getting out of Europe.

Affirmation of the Liberal Democrats’ pro-European position comes from the findings of a survey I conducted among 457 Liberal Democrat councillors in the South West region at the beginning of September, which delivers an unambiguous message of support for the Party’s Europe policy*.

However, one revealing division in …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 7 Comments
Mark Pack

David Cameron: the pro-Europeans’ secret weapon

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th October 2012 - 11:24 am

Writing for the European Council on Foreign Relations, YouGov’s Peter Kellner highlights an important polling finding:

In July this year, YouGov asked this question: ‘Imagine the British government under David Cameron renegotiated our relationship with Europe and said that Britain’s interests were now protected, and David Cameron recommended that Britain remain a member of the European Union on the new terms. How would you then vote in a referendum on the issue?’…

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and Polls | Also tagged , , and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

News snippets from the Conservative conference: tax, Europe, migration and more

By Mark Pack | Sun 7th October 2012 - 10:28 am

Conservative Party logoTrouble ahead on tax as Osborne opposes a mansion tax:

We are not going to have a mansion tax, or a new tax that is a percentage value of people’s properties.

Before you rush to spot the loophole in that – what about adding extra higher bands to Council Tax? – he opposed that too. Given Osborne made much of his reputation as was by opposing changes to inheritance tax, perhaps it is on capital gains tax that there will be room fro an agreement with the …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 13 Comments
Fiona Hall MEP

Fiona Hall MEP writes: Behind the scenes – negotiating the EU Energy Efficiency Directive

By Fiona Hall MEP | Wed 29th August 2012 - 11:58 am

While the UK Draft Energy Bill is creating headlines in the UK as it makes its way through Parliament, the EU agreed on what is regarded as the biggest ever piece of legislation in the field of energy efficiency earlier in the summer. The adoption of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) was preceded by a whole year of tough political scrutiny and weeks of negotiations between the European Parliament and Member State ministers in the Council, led by the Danish Presidency. Both Chris Huhne and later Ed Davey were heavily involved in these negotiations for the UK, which was one …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 3 Comments
Chris Davies

Chris Davies MEP writes: A view from the North (2/3)

By Chris Davies | Tue 14th August 2012 - 10:45 am

You can read the first instalment of Chris Davies’s View from the North here.

It will some as no surprise to members in the North West that I asked them some questions on issues relating to the environment and reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

I have led on environmental issues for the pan-European Liberal group in the Parliament since 1999, but since being re-elected in 2009 I have made sustainable reform of the CFP my biggest policy priority.

I asked whether members agreed with the majority of the world’s scientists that the climate is changing. 88% agreed and only …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 12 Comments
NewsHound

LibLink: Nick Clegg – Beware the risks and rewards of a banking union

By NewsHound | Sat 30th June 2012 - 11:50 am

Writing in the Financial Times this week, Nick Clegg warned:

In the debate on banking union we back greater co-operation on various aspects of an integrated financial system: common rules on the restructuring of failed banks, shared principles on how to protect depositors, high minimum standards for the capital EU banks should hold and a strong European Banking Authority.

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and LibLink | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords: 21- 30 May

By Mark Valladares | Tue 22nd May 2012 - 12:52 pm

Welcome back to a suddenly rather quieter set of benches, as the avalanche of key votes has settled, and a new Parliamentary session glides effortlessly away from the Gracious Speech. We’re still catching up after the recess, so bear with us…

Having debated the Speech itself, and given the Government several pieces of its mind over Lords Reform, the Groceries Code Adjudicator Bill has its Second Reading today. For more information, check out Norman Lamb’s piece, published in Liberal Democrat Voice last week.

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
George Potter

Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy: a Lib Dem success story

By George Potter | Tue 1st May 2012 - 10:50 am

A fortnight ago I was in Strasbourg where I was lucky enough to speak to two Liberal Democrat MEPs from farming backgrounds about their work to reform the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Phil Bennion, Liberal Democrat MEP for the West Midlands, explained to me how the CAP, which has two pillars of funds, works.

“Pillar one is common to every country in the European Union, pillar two is devolved and co-funded by member states. In the UK we spend 80% of our pillar two money on environmental schemes, while other countries spend theirs on things …

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International | Also tagged , and | 22 Comments
Mark Valladares

Is it time to consider what the European Union is for?

By Mark Valladares | Tue 24th April 2012 - 1:22 pm

Liberal Democrats are an oddly reticent bunch when it comes to the European Union, defined more by our opponents than by our own words. We are, by the very nature of being internationalist, in favour of a European idea. But we appear increasingly unsure as to what that might be, so we tend not to talk about it much these days.

What that means is that when the question of Europe is raised, UKIP loudly distort the truth, joined by the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservatives, whilst everybody else talks about jobs, education and crime, perhaps mentioning Europe in passing. So, …

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | 25 Comments
Issan Ghazni

Opinion: EU needs to resolve the crisis over Hungary’s slide to autocracy and human rights violations

By Issan Ghazni | Mon 19th March 2012 - 12:54 pm

The right-wing populist policies of the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, have created real concern over a growing constitutional crisis within the European Union (EU). His Fidesz party secured a two-thirds majority in the 2010 elections giving Viktor Orban, total authority to pass legislation.

Since then, he has been much criticised across the EU, in particular, for his new law setting unacceptable limits on media freedoms. He has also declared the country’s previous constitution invalid and passed legislation with no consultation, declaring a new constitution requiring that all judges older than 62 retire – a cynical ploy thought to favour …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 11 Comments
Stephen Tall

What Lib Dem members think about Europe, Cameron’s ‘veto’, and the Eurozone

By Stephen Tall | Sat 11th February 2012 - 7:55 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

Party members split over the future of Europe

LDV asked: Which of the following options would be your ideal future for the UK and the European Union?

    46% – The UK should remain a full member of the EU and work towards ever closer union, economically and politically.
    40% – The UK should remain a full member of the EU but reject working towards ever

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and LDV Members poll | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
William Hobhouse

Liberal Unionism in 2012

By William Hobhouse | Fri 13th January 2012 - 4:00 pm

There’s no escaping history in our party, and current debates of nationalism, unionism and secession should prompt Liberal Democrats to delve back into the Gladstonian past.

The Liberal Party split over the Union. Gladstone favoured Home Rule for Ireland, Liberal Unionists didn’t, and ultimately joined the Conservative Party. This cemented the Conservative Party as the party of the Union, and it is a position the Conservative Party still holds.

The purpose of this article is, however, to challenge the Conservative Party’s stranglehold over being British.

The existing Conservative argument goes that a Conservative Britain is a Britainthat stands proud and takes no nonsense …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 26 Comments
Paul Walter

DPMQs: LibDem MPs enjoy an untroubled post-questions lunch

By Paul Walter | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 10:03 am

Time was when Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions was the closest you got to bloodsports in the House of Commons. The DPM would be tethered, red-faced and growling, to the dispatch box, as Labour MPs taunted him and propelled all sorts of bile at him, augmented by the odd tactical nuclear missile rear-launched by the Tory swivel-eyes.

We’ve come a long way in a few months. Now, DPMQs are relatively sedate affairs. The DPM is well in control and there is little mischief from the Labour benches. Well, none that would spoil LibDem MPs’ lunches.

Indeed, at least four MPs found it difficult …

Continue reading »
Posted in Parliament | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 1 Comment
Antony Hook

Opinion: The Tory Party has mutated. It is for us to say Europe is our hope for the future

By Antony Hook | Tue 20th December 2011 - 12:53 pm

David Cameron’s renunciation of a Treaty not even yet fully negotiated was the culmination of a process that began around 1992.

In 1992 a small group of Tory ultras, “the Maastricht Rebels”, began fighting their party’s traditional pro-Europeanism. It has taken 19 years to make their fringe views a normal Conservative Party and conservative press position. 1992 has led to 2011 like a river flows to the sea.

Anti-Europeanism’s hold on a major political movement has caused a poorly informed anti-Europeanism to take hold among many of our fellow citizens in the UK, as it has among some of …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 25 Comments
Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron MP writes: Sorry Dave, but you’re no Mrs. T…

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 16th December 2011 - 2:00 pm

I have yet to watch Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher. I’m sure it will be fascinating, but I just fear that it might also be a bit too painful – I find it hard to divorce my views on the politics of that era from my memories of avoidable hardship experienced by the community I grew up in. Then again, perhaps I should try and get over my Thatcherphobia and view her record a bit more dispassionately. Where better to start than Mrs T’s record on Europe?

Sat behind me in Parliament, amongst the ranks of my valued coalition colleagues, …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 22 Comments
Mark Pack

Europe: good news, but not big news

By Mark Pack | Thu 15th December 2011 - 8:27 am

Into my inbox yesterday came an email from London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford, welcoming a sensible new decision which the European Parliament has made that will  give the public better information and – thanks to that better flow of information – make the relevant market work more efficiently. Just the sort of good news that liberals should trumpet: giving people power and fixing market failures.

But. And it’s a big but.

Continue reading »
Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged | Leave a comment
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Mick Taylor
    @Jeff clearly presents the case of the rich against them paying taxes at all. It is , of course, complete and utter bullshit, but it is pushed every day by the ...
  • Peter Davies
    Compulsory voting would provide a big boost for those of us who appear at the top of the ballot paper....
  • Steve Trevethan
    Thank you for a most relevant article on the vulnerabilities of our alleged "Democracy"! Might ignorance, both passive and imposed/structural, be a signific...
  • Kevin Hawkins
    There has been a lot of discussion on Lib Dem Voice about our party’s performance in different parts of the country with a number of people commenting that we...
  • Ellyott
    My memory from the time of the introduction of the triple lock was in response to the reduction of the state pension's buying power in preceding years and its l...