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George Hollingbery
Fighting for
Meon Valley
I believe that Britain needs change, not more of the same.
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Europe
We believe in an open, flexible Europe in which countries work to achieve shared goals rather than the ever greater centralisation of power in Brussels.
We believe that in democracies nothing lasting can be built without the people's consent - and yet people have been denied their say on the renamed EU Constitution.
If the Lisbon Treaty is not yet in force at the time of the next general election, and a Conservative Government is elected, we would put the Treaty to a referendum of the British people, recommending a 'no' vote. If the British people rejected the Treaty, we would withdraw Britain's ratification of it.
But if the Treaty is in force we will be in a different situation. In our view, then, political integration would have gone too far, the Treaty would lack democratic legitimacy in this country and we would not let matters rest there.
A Conservative Government would also amend the 1972 European Communities Act so that any future EU Treaty that transfers powers from the United Kingdom to the European Union would be subject to a referendum of the British people. The British people must be in charge of their future in Europe.
A Conservative Government would never join the euro. Giving up our currency would mean losing a vital tool for running the British economy in the interests of the people of Britain - and that means an unacceptable loss of the independence of this country.
The EU must adapt to the times we live in - and it should act where European countries together can achieve things they cannot do alone. So our priorities for the EU are today's challenges of global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty.
That means:
- Ending the remaining barriers to free trade within the EU
- Taking back control of social and employment policy so we can make our own decisions in these vital areas for Britain's prosperity and social well-being
- Improving the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme
- Reforming the EU's aid policy so that it is more focused on poverty reduction and less entangled by bureaucracy and administrative short-comings.
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 | | George Hollingbery on Europe | | I find it very difficult to accept that the right and only solution to this is to withdraw from the EU.
In a world faced with problems that have to be addressed by all of us, nation states are no longer big enough building blocks to create consensus.
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