DUTCH PRIME minister Mark Rutte has ruled out holding a referendum on the treaty to emerge from talks between 26 European Union states over the next three months, saying those who favour one have few grounds since its scope is “so small and so limited”.
The declaration from Mr Rutte came after a meeting of European liberal politicians in London hosted by Liberal Democrats deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who made clear that he believed a treaty agreed by up to 26 EU states should be brought in later under the EU umbrella.
Rejecting a referendum, Mr Rutte said: “The government is not in favour of a referendum as an instrument. We are in favour of representative government, so we will not be coming up with a proposed referendum. I would even argue that for those who are in favour of a referendum that the kind of treaty which is now being devised is so small and so limited that those who are theoretically in favour of a referendum would, in my view, not have the argument now for a referendum.”
European economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn, who was at the London talks, said “most of the substance” of th e treaty “has been done, or will be done” through secondary EU legislation, following the agreement made by euro zone leaders in December. “We are already applying. We have started to apply that from day one,” said Mr Rehn.
He has already forced the Belgians to make a last-minute €1 billion cut to their budget and is to issue findings that could affect four other euro zone countries tomorrow.
Mr Rutte became the latest EU leader to express a desire to have the UK fully back in the EU fold, following British prime minister David Cameron’s decision last month to refuse to allow the EU as a whole to negotiate a new treaty.
Clearly still unhappy about Mr Cameron’s action, Mr Clegg said Mr Cameron had vetoed nothing since the rest of the EU was now negotiating their own agreement and that “all it had been asked” to do was “give its consent” to a EU-wide deal that would not have affected the UK.
In words that will reignite Conservative Eurosceptic tempers, Mr Clegg said the new treaty, which should be completed by March if the current timetable is maintained, should be brought into the EU treaties. “It should be folded over time into the existing EU treaties so that you don’t get parallel treaties, separate from each other. We all see this as a temporary arrangement rather than one that creates a permanent breach at the heart of the EU,” he declared.
Pushing for new measures to invigorate the EU’s single market, Mr Clegg said €5,000 worth of extra trade could be enjoyed by every UK citizen if trade in all forms of services and digital businesses were fully open.
Saying that the UK should lead in Europe, Mr Clegg said the British public is “not well served by us retreating to the margins”, adding that he would continue to urge that the UK “should engage, not disengage” with fellow EU states.