Gaining allies for #EUReform: Open Europe / Fresh Start Project's EU Reform Conference is drawing huge levels of interest

Advocates of 'Out' of the EU or the 'Status Quo', are fond of saying that EU reform is impossible - it suits their respective cases. They are wrong. Reform is possible, but will not happen on its own, reformers in the UK need to go out there and win allies and put forward solid thought-through proposals to make the EU more competitive and closer to voters.

This week Open Europe and the Fresh Start Project will attempt to do just that by hosting a ground-breaking conference for EU Reform in London.

It will be a landmark event - and the response to this conference has been absolutely amazing. A reminder to those who say there's "no appetite" for reform in Europe that they may be speaking too soon. There will be 300 delegates from over 30 countries debating a full spectrum of ideas on how to achieve major reform in Europe. Keynote speakers include eight ministers from across the continent, leading business people, MPs, MEPs, former heads of state and a European Commissioner.

Here are some highlights:

• A major contribution from a senior UK Minister.

• Agnieszka Pomaska, Chair of the EU Affairs Committee in the Polish Parliament, and Priti Patel MP debating EU free movement and rules on access to benefits.
• Rachida Dati MEP, Deputy President of the French UMP Party, asking if it’s time for a “realist revolution” in Europe.
• Leading German MP Klaus-Peter Willsch and former EU Commissioner and Dutch minister Frits Bolkestein discussing if, and how, powers can flow back from the EU to its member states.
• UK Europe Minister David Lidington and Irish Europe Minister Paschal Donohoe discussing the role of national parliaments with break-out sessions looking at whether national parliaments should be given veto rights over EU law.
• Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for Fisheries, explaining why EU reform is possible using the case of the EU’s fisheries policy.
• Bruno Maçães, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, discussing how services liberalisation can be achieved in Europe.
• Serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson and Dr Daniel Mitrenga of the German Association of Family Enterprises identifying ways to cut EU regulation.
• UK Foreign Secretary William Hague addressing the “Reformers’ Reception”.
• Bulgarian Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, and former Slovakian Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, drawing lessons on reform from Eastern and Central Europe.
• Peter Norman, the Swedish Minister for Financial Markets, looking at how the single market can work for economic recovery.
• Young reformers from across Europe setting out their ideas for change in the concluding “Future of Europe” panel.

What do we hope to achieve?One conference will not achieve #EUReform on its own, but ahead of a crucial year in Europe - with the European elections and the selection of a new European Commission - it'll be a hugely important opportunity to really delve into the kind of policies that will achieve sweeping change in Europe. It'ls also be a key testing ground for what kind of reforms David Cameron might achieve ahead of a potential 2017 EU referendum.

We have provided a platform, now lets see what the delegates make of it...


France must take inspiration from David Cameron on Europe

This is the argument made in a very interesting op-ed penned by French MEP (and former Justice Minister) Rachida Dati, of the centre-right UMP party, for today's Le Figaro. We reported on the article in today's press summary, but we thought it was worth translating it (almost) in its entirety.

Here it is:

Is a new wind blowing through Brussels? The old myth of [European] federalism may be falling...The elite cheers the self-proclaimed 'Europeans', who, to preserve their post, write pamphlets lamenting this technocratic Europe, rejected by the peoples and origin of all populist movements. Some others want to change things, acting against the tide of the 'Brussels elite'. These are the modern, the courageous, the defenders of a realist Europe. David Cameron is one of them.

When he proposes to the British people a referendum on the UK's future in the EU, he acts responsibly. To deny [a referendum] to the British people, who are asking for it, would be the best means to exacerbate the anti-European sentiment that is on the rise not only across the Channel, but everywhere in Europe. When [David Cameron] proposes repatriating certain competences from Brussels to the national level, that's what we want too!

We believe, like David Cameron, that the future of Europe depends on it. It's with this same spirit that we must move forward with useful deregulation. David Cameron has had the audacity to put this idea onto the European agenda. Even [European Commission President] Barroso, the 'pusillanimous', has been forced to launch the REFIT programme, aimed at simplifying and easing EU law.

[...]

[French President] François Hollande is right to be cautious with the British offensive, which is good in the form, but whose exact outline we don't know yet. An ultra-liberal initiative would backfire against the people we say we are listening to. It is imperative to simplify [EU regulation] to boost the competitiveness of European businesses, especially SMEs. But this simplification must not be done to the detriment of certain rights of workers or the safeguard of citizens’ private life. However, this is a debate that deserves to be opened.

Ms Dati then goes on to address a specific EU policy area:

I plead for this simplification to be applied to the domain of energy as a matter of priority...The most serious problem [with EU energy policy] is the multiplicity of contradictory environmental, energy, and climate targets. Taken individually, these targets are laudable. But the facts have proven that, combined, they could cancel each other out - not to speak of the damage done to the competitiveness of our businesses. 

This is the case with renewable energy. Due to the subsidies it benefits from, the market is distorted as its use is prioritised. By their own nature, these sources of energy are intermittent, and cannot cope with energy demand on their own...I intend to make the ambition for a European energy policy that is more flexible in its targets and, finally, consistent, one of the priorities of the UMP's campaign for [next year's] European elections.

The UMP must finally stop hesitating about its European stance. We have never been listened to so much as when we knew how to talk and listen to the [French] people, particularly the popular classes. On Europe, they are asking us for a realist revolution. Let's listen to them!