British prime minister David Cameron has outlined his demands for reform in order for Britain to stay in the EU(10 Nov). The official outline of his approach to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the 28-member bloc comes before the UK votes on an historic referendum deciding Britain’s fate within the EU. Cameron’s demands include protections for non-euro members against economic discrimination from Eurozone members, a stronger role for national parliaments in EU decision-making, the abandonment of the pursuit of an “ever closer union” to which Britain is legally bound as a signatory state of the European Union treaties, and the right to restrict welfare entitlements for four years to those migrants arriving from other European countries. This last point flies wildly in the face of current EU law which declares equal treatment to all citizens of the EU in any and all member states. Britons will go to the polls by the end of 2017 in order to vote on Britain’s EU membership and Cameron made it clear that he does not take such a decision lightly. “You will hold this country’s destiny in your hands, this is a huge decision for our country, perhaps the biggest we will make in our lifetimes,” said the prime minister, but commenting that Britons should “think again” if membership is the right thing for the UK if these demands fall upon “deaf ears.”
