Donald Tusk’s appointment as EU president won’t satisfy Cameron’s rebels
Jonathan Lindsell, 2 September 2014
The EU states’ leaders have agreed that Donald Tusk, the centre-right Polish Prime Minister since 2007, will become the next President of the European Council. Tusk, who founded the ‘Civic Platform’ party after activism in Solidarity, will succeed Herman Van Rompuy on 1 December.
His appointment was supported by Prime Minister David Cameron. He has kept Poland out of recession and out of the Euro while increasing his standing across the continent. Tusk is a supporter of free markets and joined Britain in opting out of the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2007. Respected by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and tough on Putin, the new President might serve as a reformist foil to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a more traditional integrationist. Tusk said:
No one reasonable can envisage the dark scenario of an EU without Britain…Many of the suggestions for EU reform put forward [by David Cameron] are sensible…We can work together to eliminate any welfare abuse by EU migrants.
This is good news for Cameron, whose confidence took a blow last week when radical MP Douglas Carswell announced his defection to Ukip, triggering a by-election. For a key European ally to announce that ‘I emphasise that the EU, and me personally, will take on the concerns voiced by the UK’ will help Cameron to argue his EU renegotiation strategy has a good chance.
Conservative backbenchers and grassroots supporters may not be satisfied, however. The Independent reports that 50 – 100 Conservative MPs plan to campaign for the 2015 general election with personal pledges of voting ‘Out’ in a referendum. Echoing Carswell’s leaving speech, many do not believe that Cameron’s reform agenda can go enough, or even intends to. While Tusk tried to respect Eurosceptic demands – ‘We can strive to eliminate various barriers – freedom of movement of workers, for example’ – this falls short of some Tory ambitions.
Dissatisfied Tories have been buoyed by an alternative manifesto posted on the Conservative Home website. The two most popular policies (as polled by YouGov) were:
Britain should retake control of its borders from the European Union, replacing existing immigration policies with a points-based system that would ensure only.
Support: 70
Oppose: 15
All new migrants should be required to purchase their own health and welfare insurance cover.
Support: 70
Oppose: 19
It’s highly unlikely that Tusk and Merkel, however sympathetic to Britain’s benefits tourism concerns, would concede the free movement principle. Tusk must be mindful of the number of Poles in the UK. His popular foreign minister and possible successor Radoslaw Sikorski thinks Tory rhetoric on migration is ‘stupid propaganda’, we learnt from leaked recordings. Tusk’s former finance minister Jacek Rostowski said of Cameron’s migrant reform ambitions, ‘No Polish government could agree.’ This impression is reinforced by a different leak in which Polish leaders discussed a violent disagreement between Tusk and Cameron.
Despite Cameron’s satisfaction with the new Council President he still has a problem. There might be concessions on exactly what ‘free movement’ means, but even reform-minded EU leaders cannot deliver the change Ukip and sceptic Tories really want.