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Hollande threatens to block UK changes to EU treaty

Anna Sonny, 19 December 2014

If re-elected next year as Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron has said that he will attempt to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU, to get a ‘new settlement for Britain in Europe’. But yesterday at a meeting of the European Council Summit, French President Francois Hollande threatened to block any proposed changes to the Lisbon Treaty.

Cameron is hoping to renegotiate an opt-out for the UK on the core principle of ‘ever closer union’. But treaty changes require unanimity and Hollande is threatening to use his veto. The French President is worried that giving Britain the chance to renegotiate her relationship with the EU might trigger a referendum in France, where the far-right, anti-EU Front National is proving to be a major political threat.

While Hollande is accusing Cameron of attempting to renegotiate as a response to fears over Ukip’s increasing success, his own response to the Prime Minister’s proposed treaty changes are born out of his own anxiety over the growing popularity of the Front National.

The Front National bemoan the British rebate, arguing that it is unfair that France has to bear the brunt of it, and feels France does not benefit from its relationship with the EU as much as other member states.

The French President is well known for taking umbrage against anyone treating the EU as an ‘à la carte menu’ – while Britain is notorious for trying to retreat from ever closer union.

The problem with the European project is that all member states cannot always have the same vision, which makes ever closer union impractical. So far, closer union has led to the eurozone crisis and a rising wave of euroscepticism across the continent itself, amongst European citizens. What Hollande fails to realise with his threatened veto is how important it is for political leaders to listen to their electorate, instead of pushing an agenda that nobody wants. Stopping Cameron’s changes won’t do anything to ebb the flow of French euroscepticism that finds itself entrenched in the rising popularity of the Front National.

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