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In a letter to the FT Douglas Hurd argues that “David Cameron, with his colleagues, certainly understands that the tide of opinion in the European Union, including part of the European Commission, has swung in favour of liberal reform. (This has been clear to some of us for 15 years.) Like all compromises, his decision on the European People’s party has drawn fire from both ends of the argument. It must be read with William Hague’s recent policy speech. Together they are the most positive statements on the EU from our front bench since 1997.”
Hurd goes on to say that, “Gone are the unrealistic proposals to uproot this or that essential part of the structure. What is now said comes as a breath of fresh air to those of us who believe that a Conservative party firmly rooted in the EU is needed for these modern tasks which, if we are serious, we have to tackle as Europeans - energy, enlargement, completing the single market, climate change and a foreign policy based on partnership with the US.”
Comment: from Open Europe
Hurd argues that the EU has been swinging in favour of liberal reform for the last 15 years. Really? The rhetoric from Jose Barroso may be more market friendly, but the reality is that things have got worse. Since the start of 1990 the EU has passed 18,061 new directives, regulations and decisions. Since the Government started to measure the direct costs of such regulation in 1998, EU legislation has cost the UK economy a minimum of £37 billion. Over the last 15 years spending on the CAP has risen in real terms: up by more than a third, from €82 billion in 1990 to €108 billion in 2005 (which is why Oxfam keep complaining).

It’s true that CAP spending has fallen as a share of the budget, but only because other spending grew even faster: correspondingly the UK’s contribution to the EU has risen from £6.5 billion in 1990 to £10.5 billion a year now (even when measured in today’s prices). Over the last 15 years the EU has gained all kinds of new powers which British politicians on the left and right did not want it to have: from the Conservatives’ defeat on the working time directive to the Commission’s recently gained power to propose criminal laws which are passed by majority vote. Despite referendum defeats in Denmark, Ireland, France and Holland, the drive to ‘ever closer union’ shows no sign of stopping. Next March we will have the “Berlin declaration” and then a new treaty.

The Foreign Office has been reciting the mantra that “Europe is reforming and coming our way” ever since the UK joined. The reality is that it is not and will not, unless (a) we stop kidding ourselves and (b) finally get a government (of whichever party) which is prepared to break the mould.

FT letter