British negotiating hand in Europe has never been as strong as before
Here is the opening from a fascinating and informative article by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of The Telegraph:
The case for British exit from the EU is diminishing. It is no longer self-evident that this country must withdraw from the EU Treaty structures to ensure self-rule and to safeguard our democracy.
Events are moving very fast in Europe, overtaking the debate in Britain. Advocates of the historic nation states - L'Europe des Patries - are gaining ground across the Continent. Superstate romantics are on the back foot almost everywhere. The Hegelians are hated.
"The time of an 'ever closer union' in every possible policy area is behind us," says the Dutch government. Its review of EU powers calls for swathes of policy, from social security to water management, to be left "more or less entirely to member states"
The Dutch are carefully shadowing the British, as well they might given that Geert Wilder's Freedom Party is leading the polls with calls to "control our borders, our economy, our currency". The cities of Rotterdam and The Hague have vowed openly to breach EU law on social security rights for Balkan migrants.
Can Europe climb out from under its increasingly intrusive and largely unaccountable Socialist bureaucracy? I do not know but I have always felt that Europe would be happier and considerably more prosperous as a free trade area, with member states free to run their own countries in line with their democratic interests and choices.
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