Cameron’s EU Treaty Wish List vs. Likelihood of Implementation; Did Cameron Lose His Mind? Election Carrots in Play?

Courtesy of Mish.

UK Prime minister David Cameron has agreed to an up or down British vote on the EU but not until 2017 (conveniently after the next election in 2015).

Should Cameron lose the election, one can forget about the promise to hold an up-or-down vote.

Cameron’s Telegraph Op-Ed

Cameron has other strings attached to the vote. Yesterday, after at least a year of promises to do so, Cameron outlined the changes he wants to the EU treaty in his Telegraph op-ed EU is Not Working and We Will Change It.

People are worried that Britain is being sucked into a United States of Europe; that may be what some others want, but it is not for us. They see decisions being taken far away, rather than by their elected representatives in Parliament. And they worry that European rules have allowed people to claim benefits without ever working here. As a result, democratic consent for Britain’s membership has worn wafer thin.

And although it would not be a very smart negotiating tactic to lay all Britain’s cards on the table at the outset, I know people want more detail about the specific changes we will seek. So I can confirm today that tackling these concerns will be at the heart of our approach.

Cameron’s Wish List of Changes

1. National parliaments able to work together to block unwanted European legislation.
2. Businesses liberated from red tape and benefiting from the strength of the EU’s own market – the biggest and wealthiest on the planet – to open up greater free trade with North America and Asia.
3. Our police forces and justice systems able to protect British citizens, unencumbered by unnecessary interference from the European institutions, including the ECHR.
4. Free movement to take up work, not free benefits.
5. Support for the continued enlargement of the EU to new members but with new mechanisms in place to prevent vast migrations across the Continent.
6. So, yes to the single market. Yes to turbo-charging free trade. No to ever-closer union. No to a constant flow of power to Brussels. No to unnecessary interference.
7. No to participation in eurozone bailouts or notions such as a European Army.

Proposal number 1 is straight from the looney bin. Cameron proposes setting up some sort of  committee that can block EU regulations that the majority of countries in the EU want. 

Proposals 2 and 6 limit the ability of the EU to set trade rules. If every country is free to create its own trade agreements, precisely what is the EU for?

Proposals 3, 4, 6, and 7 make perfect sense except for the fact that Germany and France and likely the rest of the EU would never agree to change the treaty along those lines.

Nowhere does Cameron specifically mention financial transactions or absurd tariff proposals, but arguably they are implied in points 1 and 2.

Yet, without specific written agreements on agricultural subsidies, financial transaction taxes, bailouts, and even the funding of a European army, eventually the majority is going to rule.
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