British Tories redefine their European politics

After 13 years of opposition, the British Conservatives stand a good chance of regaining power. What will that mean for their policies towards Europe?

It has long been a popular pastime for members of the Conservative Party to depict 'Europe' as a greedy, multi-headed dragon the UK should steer far away from. Current party leader David Cameron happily chimes in with that euro-sceptic chorus: he resisted the Lisbon Treaty, which tries to make the European Union a more decisive and democratic, and offered the British the prospect of a referendum.

"Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee," he wrote in an Op-Ed in The Sun newspaper in 2007. "If I become prime minister, a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations."

But soon the Lisbon Treaty will come into force. At the same time polls show opposition leader Cameron could very well become prime minister Cameron after next year's elections.

That raised the question of whether he would keep his promise about organising a referendum. At a party convention last month, he refused to answer that question. He feared infighting between party members about the European relations as happened under his predecessors Margaret Thatcher and John Major. Instead he wrote a note to Czech president Vaclav Klaus to urge this fellow opponent of the treaty to drag his resistance out as long as possible.

Bow to the inevitable

But as the Czech Republic ratified the treaty this week, Cameron bowed to the inevitable. There will not be a referendum about 'Lisbon', he said in London on Wednesday. He defended the reversal with the fact that such a plebiscite would be futile under the current circumstances. “If we wasted everyone’s time and taxpayer's money on a referendum that had no effect, I do not think the British people would thank us for it."

Instead he promised to fight for the repatriation of powers that previous governments have handed over to Brussels. He wants to renew opt-outs (with regard to social legalisation and the EU charter of rights) and establish new ones (on criminal justice). He also wants to prohibit, by law, the transfer of any power to the EU without a referendum.

Protest from euro-sceptics within the party was unexpectedly limited. MEP Daniel Hannan, an arch sceptic, did say he will resign from his post to dedicate himself to campaign for a referendum. But apart from that, protests within the party was limited to anonymous comments in the corridors of the House of Commons. Political commentators say many Tories realise they should not waste their first serious opportunity of regaining power with new quarrels about Europe.

International reponse

The response from French minister for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche, was less calm. He told daily The Guardian the Conservatives' policies were "pathetic". He said they display "a very bizarre sense of autism". "It's just very sad to see Britain, so important in Europe, just cutting itself off from the rest and disappearing from the radar map."

Lellouche was referring to the party's decision to splinter off from the large, centre-right European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament and to ally itself with right-wing, marginal groups. "They have essentially castrated UK influence in the European parliament," he said, adding that French president Nicolas Sarkozy regretted the Tories' position.

It is a public secret that German chancellor Angela Merkel is also disgruntled with the Conservatives leaving the EPP. Elmar Brok, a prominent member of Merkel's party in the European parliament wrote in The Independent Cameron has little change of retrieving powers from Brussels to London as this would require agreement from all 27 member states. After eight years of bickering about the Lisbon Treaty there is no chance that will happen, according to Brok.

Despite all this, the general mood after Cameron's moderate and pragmatic announcement was one of relief. He made clear that he will not wage an ideological war against the rest of Europe. His priority is to boost a British economy that, unlike the French and German ones, is still in recession. Cameron will be happy not to deal with Europe for the time being.