European Council

Jonathan Djanogly Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

No, I completely disagree. The Conservative party’s position is absolutely in line with the position of the British public, which is that we know we need to be in the single market because we are a trading nation and our businesses benefit and our economy benefits from that, but we are not happy with every element of our membership of the European Union. Unlike the Labour party, which just caved in, gave in on common agricultural policy reform, gave in on the rebate, gave in on the bail-out, we are prepared to stand up and get what we want.

[Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon) (Con)]

Reform, for most EU states, seems to be focused on banking reform, but for many of us this extends to cutting waste and spending, CAP reform, and repatriation of powers—all things which will certainly be thrown into the reckoning in an in/out referendum or indeed any kind of referendum, so could my right hon. Friend explain how these wider issues are being addressed by the European Council members?

[The Prime Minister]

In terms of the UK, I think that the balance of competences review is a good exercise for looking at all our engagement with Europe and its costs and benefits. Within the European Union, all those issues are addressed and different countries come to different conclusions. We should not be frightened of standing up and saying very clearly what we think is in Britain’s interests.