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The problem the conservatives have and will continue to have unless they can square the EU circle is One thing is for sure the EU is not going to undo 30 years of integration just to please David Cameron epitomised by of all people Labour MEP and arch federalist Richard Corbett in a letter to the Independent this morning.

Other than the EU spin and misrepresentation Corbett has put his finger on the predicament facing the Conservative leadership if they were to ever gain power, something I must admit is beginning to look increasingly likely as more and more people are expressing dismay over the present administration.

Corbett was responding to an article by Bruce Anderson in the Independent explaining how David Cameron will face the four big challenges “when” he takes office, one of which is the EU;

Mr Cameron knows what sort of Europe he wants: a common market plus political co-operation. This would not guarantee the end of European interference; a common market would require umpires to ensure that there is fair competition. But it would remove the threat of federalism. At last, after 30 years of equivocation and often downright dishonesty by British Europhiles, it would also put the UK’s relationship with the EU on a stable, sustainable basis.

But all this will require a series of monumental rows, especially if the EU constitution has been ratified before the Tories come to power. Like Margaret Thatcher after 1979 in pursuit of her budget rebate, Cameron may have to reduce a succession of EU summits to rubble.

Anderson exhibits an optimistic view when he says the EU problem is solvable.

Even without the intervention of Corbett, it is clear that the Conservative policy think tank have been unable to address the question; what they will do when- and it is when- their attempts to restructure the EU in the image they desire are roundly rejected by the federalists, who have no intention of allowing a reversal of their gains over the past thirty years.

Equally even if they did it manage to claw back one or two competencies that would only create a breathing space, before they were re- introduced, because whilst we remain in the Union there is every chance that the next administration will take an entirely more Corbett like view and we will be back where we started.
David Cameron has not got a hope in hell getting everyone else to revert back to a Common Market, that is not what the EU is about, so the only thing that would be open to him is a total renegotiation of our relationship with the EU, one where we take back all of the political powers that have been passed to the EU level and begin a new looser arrangement, something less than full political membership.
A point made by Corbett “if Cameron were to demand opt-outs from previously agreed common-market rules, he would get no sympathy from our European partners and would face the choice of accepting the status quo or withdrawal.”

The Conservatives have yet to produce anything more than a wish list or substantiate any measure they will use to actually achieve their stated goal. They are holding out a beacon to Eusceptics, but show no real intentions of doing anything that would really achieve what they say the want. They will have to accept that the only way they can achieve the relationship with the EU they say they want, is to enter into negotiations with withdrawal as the fallback position.

One thing is for sure the EU is not going to undo 30 years of integration just to please David Cameron.

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Richard Corbett, Bruce Anderson, EU, Conservative,
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