Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom
Encyclopedia
Euroscepticism is a significant element in the politics of the United Kingdom (UK) since the inception of the European Communities
—comprising the European Economic Community
(EEC), the European Atomic Energy Community
(EAEC) and the European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC)— the predecessor to the European Union
(EU).
In Britain, opinions were divided, fairly evenly, between those who thought that membership is a good thing, a bad thing, or neither good nor bad.
Whereas overall the majority of citizens (56%) believed that membership of the EU had benefited their country (with a significant minority (31%) believing that their country had not benefited),, in Britain only 34% believed that Britain had benefited from membership, on balance. Overall, about 48 percent of EU citizens tended to trust the European Parliament, and about 36 percent did not tend to trust it, but in Britain trust was lowest, at 22 percent.
Within Europe overall, a positive to neutral image of the EU dominated, with about 46% of citizens having a positive image and only 16% having a negative image; about 36% had a neutral image. In Britain, only 22 percent had a positive image, 33 percent had a negative image, and 38 percent had a neutral image.
that took the United Kingdom into what then was the European Communities. Nevertheless, certain groups of Conservatives still opposed British accession to the Common Market. One of the earliest groups formed especially against British involvement in Europe was the initially Conservative Party-based Anti-Common Market League
, whose president Victor Montagu
infamously declared that opponents of the Common Market did not want to "subject [themselves] to a lot of frogs and huns".
Conversely, much of the opposition to Britain's EU membership used to come from Labour
politicians and trade unionists who feared bloc membership would impede socialism. However, many Labourites subsequently came to welcome the EU. This shift largely took place in the 1980s during the period of Margaret Thatcher
's premiership, when she aggressively pursued right-wing policies whilst Jacques Delors
in his role as President of the European Commission
emphasised the idea of a "social Europe", particularly in his speech to the 1988 TUC congress.
Although the British government was favourable to the creation of the European Communities, the United Kingdom did not become a founding member. However, trade with European Communities ended up accounting for more of Britain's trade than with the European Free Trade Association
(EFTA), which had been established partially as an alternative to the European Communities. This led Great Britain to reconsider its policy, moving closer to the EEC and opening accession negotiations in 1961. French president Charles de Gaulle
strongly resisted, arguing that the UK was closer to American
policies than European ones, and would therefore attempt to "sabotage" the community. Consequently, France vetoed the UK's membership bid in 1963 and again in 1967.
The Labour Party, then in opposition, spoke against the European Communities. The party leader Hugh Gaitskell
once declared that joining the European Communities would mean "the end of a thousand years of history". A second attempt was made in 1967, but it was again rejected by a French veto. When de Gaulle stepped down from power, British membership of the EEC became feasible at last. Labour changed from its traditional opposition towards the European Communities and began to support membership. After the party came to power, Britain applied to join for a third time in 1969. Finally, Britain joined the communities under the Conservative administration in 1973.
Despite the decision to join the European Communities, scepticism about membership prompted the Labour government to hold a referendum in 1975
on the permanence in the Communities. The question asked from the voters was:
British membership of the EEC was endorsed by 67.2% of those voting, with a turnout of 64.5%.
The debate between Eurosceptics
and EU supporters is ongoing in British political parties, whose membership is of varied standpoints. The two main political parties in Britain
, the governing Conservative Party
and the Labour Party opposition both have within them a broad spectrum of views concerning the European Union. However, the majority of Conservative Party members are typically Eurosceptic whilst most Labour Party members usually support continued EU membership and further EU integration..
In the 1970s and the early 1980s the Labour Party was the more Eurosceptic of the two parties, having more anti-European Communities MPs than the Conservatives. In 1975 Labour held a special conference on British membership and the party voted 2-to-1 for Britain to leave the European Communities. In 1979 the Labour manifesto declared that a Labour government would "oppose any move towards turning the Community into a federation" and in 1983 they favoured British withdrawal from the EEC. Under the leadership of Neil Kinnock
after 1983, however, the Labour Party dropped their opposition to the European Communities and instead favoured greater British integration into European Economic and Monetary Union
.
However, many commentators believe over-interest in the issue to be an important reason why the Conservative Party lost the General Election of 2001
. They argue that the British electorate was more influenced by domestic issues than by European affairs.
After the electoral defeat of the UK Conservatives in 2001, the issue of eurosceptism was important in the contest to elect a new party leader. The winner, Iain Duncan Smith
, was seen as more eurosceptic than his predecessor, William Hague
.
As opposition leader, Iain Duncan Smith attempted to disaffiliate the British Conservative Members of the European Parliament
(MEPs) from the federalist European People's Party
Group. As MEPs must maintain a pan-European alliance to retain parliamentary privileges, Duncan Smith sought the merger of Conservative MEPs into the eurosceptic Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN) group. Conservative MEPs vetoed this move because of the presence within the UEN of representatives of neo-fascist parties who do not share similar domestic politics. In 2004, Duncan Smith's successor, Michael Howard
, emphasised that Conservative MEPs would remain in the EPP Group so as to maintain influence in the European Parliament
. However Michael Howard's successor, David Cameron
pledged to remove Conservative MEPs from the EPP Group which has now been implemented.
The Labour Party is also split between eurosceptic and pro-EU factions. Historically, the party tended towards euroscepticism, but under Tony Blair
its policies became generally pro-EU. However, a significant minority of Labour MPs have formed the Labour Against the Euro group, opposing British membership of the single currency. The group has support from minority parts of the Trade Union
movement, while the majority of trade unions remain staunchly pro-EU.
The UK's third-largest parliamentary party, the Liberal Democrats
, is strongly pro-EU and advocate institutional reform to advance European federalism with a greater role for national parliaments in scrutinising EU legislation but a reduced ability (through the raising of Qualified Majority Voting blocking thresholds as in the Lisbon Treaty) to block or amend it.
The United Kingdom Independence Party
, which advocates the UK's complete withdrawal from the European Union, received 16% of the vote and gained 12 MEPs in the 2004 European Election
. The Party did even better in the 2009 UK European Election
, coming in second, above the incumbent Labour Party
The Scottish National Party
(SNP) has tended to be pro-EU since the 1980s. As the SNP's heartlands tend to be in fishing and farming areas of Scotland, they have been seen as a real threat to the pro-European SNP. However, this has not yet emerged. Polls show there is some Euroscepticism in Scotland, but neither UKIP nor the Conservatives have a significant level of support in Scotland.
, Daily Express
, The Daily Telegraph
, The Sun
and The Times
, as well as their respective Sunday sister publications. These newspapers tend to oppose further European integration and have called for ratification of the Lisbon Treaty to be subject to a referendum. In November 2010, the Daily Express became the first British newspaper to formally call for withdrawal from the EU.
The hard-left daily The Morning Star
takes an international-Marxist eurosceptic position. Under the editorship of Mark Seddon
, Tribune
, the journal of the Labour Movement, tended to give space to eurosceptic contributors, including controversially Marc Glendening of the Democracy Movement
. This position was defended by other centre-left eurosceptics who also spoke on platforms with the Democracy Movement.
The European Union has accused the British Press of circulating inaccurate stories which it calls "Euromyths". Although they usually have a grain of truth in them, they often arise from misunderstandings or when the actions of a different European organisation, such as the Council of Europe
, are erroneously attributed to the EU.
, which they claim lacks democratic legitimacy because it is elected by the European Parliament
and not directly by voters (much like the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
).
. Nevertheless, over the recent years the EU's accounts have actually been given a clean bill of health by the ECA, and this claim stems from a confusion on the part of eurosceptics about the difference between a "clean bill of health" and an "unqualified statement of assurance".
Further accusations of corruption have been levelled at the highest level. In 2005, Nigel Farage
MEP requested that the European Commission
disclose where individual Commissioners had spent their holidays, which the Commission rejected on the basis that they had a right to privacy. Eurosceptics have also accused the President of the European Commission
, José Barroso, for spending a week on the yacht of the Greek shipping billionaire Spiro Latsis
only a month before the Commission approved €10.3 million of Greek state aid for Latsis' shipping company. However, this decision had been made by the previous Commission body, before Barroso had been appointed.
poll found that 47% of voters in the United Kingdom would vote to leave the European Union, while 33% would vote to stay in (with 14% undecided and 5% unwilling to vote
). Support and opposition for withdrawal from the Union are not evenly distributed among the different age groups: opposition to EU membership is most prevalent among those 60 and older (57%) but dwindles steadily to only 31% among those aged 18–24. Finally, the results of the poll showed that London
is the most pro-EU region whereas the Rest of South region is the most eurosceptic.
European Communities
The European Communities were three international organisations that were governed by the same set of institutions...
—comprising the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
(EEC), the European Atomic Energy Community
European Atomic Energy Community
The European Atomic Energy Community is an international organisation which is legally distinct from the European Union , but has the same membership, and is governed by the EU's institutions....
(EAEC) and the European Coal and Steel Community
European Coal and Steel Community
The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union...
(ECSC)— the predecessor to the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
(EU).
Eurobarometer survey 2009
A survey in showed that attitudes toward the European Union vary greatly between countries. Overall, the majority of EU citizens supported their country's membership over 50% thought their country's membership was "a good thing", and only 15% thought it was "a bad thing".; but while support was very high in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland, with about 70%–80% thinking that membership was a good thing, scepticism was high in Latvia, the United Kingdom, and Hungary, with only 25%–32% viewing membership as a good thing.In Britain, opinions were divided, fairly evenly, between those who thought that membership is a good thing, a bad thing, or neither good nor bad.
Whereas overall the majority of citizens (56%) believed that membership of the EU had benefited their country (with a significant minority (31%) believing that their country had not benefited),, in Britain only 34% believed that Britain had benefited from membership, on balance. Overall, about 48 percent of EU citizens tended to trust the European Parliament, and about 36 percent did not tend to trust it, but in Britain trust was lowest, at 22 percent.
Within Europe overall, a positive to neutral image of the EU dominated, with about 46% of citizens having a positive image and only 16% having a negative image; about 36% had a neutral image. In Britain, only 22 percent had a positive image, 33 percent had a negative image, and 38 percent had a neutral image.
History
Although at present a significant proportion of Conservatives are hostile to the European Union, it was the Conservative PartyConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
that took the United Kingdom into what then was the European Communities. Nevertheless, certain groups of Conservatives still opposed British accession to the Common Market. One of the earliest groups formed especially against British involvement in Europe was the initially Conservative Party-based Anti-Common Market League
Anti-Common Market League
Get Britain Out is a British Eurosceptic organisation.The group was set up in 1961 in response to the failed attempt by Britain to enter the European Economic Community the previous year. Led by John Paul and Michael Shay, the group was initially restricted to Conservative Party members...
, whose president Victor Montagu
Victor Montagu
Alexander Victor Edward Paulet Montagu, 10th Earl of Sandwich , known as Viscount Hinchingbrooke from 1916 to 1962, as the Earl of Sandwich from 1962 to 1964 and as Victor Montagu from 1964 to 1995, was a British Conservative Member of Parliament and right-wing politician.Montagu was the eldest...
infamously declared that opponents of the Common Market did not want to "subject [themselves] to a lot of frogs and huns".
Conversely, much of the opposition to Britain's EU membership used to come from Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politicians and trade unionists who feared bloc membership would impede socialism. However, many Labourites subsequently came to welcome the EU. This shift largely took place in the 1980s during the period of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's premiership, when she aggressively pursued right-wing policies whilst Jacques Delors
Jacques Delors
Jacques Lucien Jean Delors is a French economist and politician, the eighth President of the European Commission and the first person to serve three terms in that office .-French Politics:...
in his role as President of the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
emphasised the idea of a "social Europe", particularly in his speech to the 1988 TUC congress.
Although the British government was favourable to the creation of the European Communities, the United Kingdom did not become a founding member. However, trade with European Communities ended up accounting for more of Britain's trade than with the European Free Trade Association
European Free Trade Association
The European Free Trade Association or EFTA is a free trade organisation between four European countries that operates parallel to, and is linked to, the European Union . EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative for European states who were either unable to, or chose not to,...
(EFTA), which had been established partially as an alternative to the European Communities. This led Great Britain to reconsider its policy, moving closer to the EEC and opening accession negotiations in 1961. French president Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
strongly resisted, arguing that the UK was closer to American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
policies than European ones, and would therefore attempt to "sabotage" the community. Consequently, France vetoed the UK's membership bid in 1963 and again in 1967.
The Labour Party, then in opposition, spoke against the European Communities. The party leader Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell CBE was a British Labour politician, who held Cabinet office in Clement Attlee's governments, and was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955, until his death in 1963.-Early life:He was born in Kensington, London, the third and youngest...
once declared that joining the European Communities would mean "the end of a thousand years of history". A second attempt was made in 1967, but it was again rejected by a French veto. When de Gaulle stepped down from power, British membership of the EEC became feasible at last. Labour changed from its traditional opposition towards the European Communities and began to support membership. After the party came to power, Britain applied to join for a third time in 1969. Finally, Britain joined the communities under the Conservative administration in 1973.
Despite the decision to join the European Communities, scepticism about membership prompted the Labour government to hold a referendum in 1975
United Kingdom referendum, 1975
The United Kingdom referendum of 1975 was a post-legislative referendum held on 5 June 1975 in the United Kingdom to gauge support for the country's continued membership of the European Economic Community , often known as the Common Market at the time, which it had entered in 1973 under the...
on the permanence in the Communities. The question asked from the voters was:
"Parliament has decided to consult the electorate on the question whether the UK should remain in the European Economic Community: Do you want the UK to remain in the EEC?"
British membership of the EEC was endorsed by 67.2% of those voting, with a turnout of 64.5%.
The debate between Eurosceptics
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
and EU supporters is ongoing in British political parties, whose membership is of varied standpoints. The two main political parties in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the governing Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
and the Labour Party opposition both have within them a broad spectrum of views concerning the European Union. However, the majority of Conservative Party members are typically Eurosceptic whilst most Labour Party members usually support continued EU membership and further EU integration..
In the 1970s and the early 1980s the Labour Party was the more Eurosceptic of the two parties, having more anti-European Communities MPs than the Conservatives. In 1975 Labour held a special conference on British membership and the party voted 2-to-1 for Britain to leave the European Communities. In 1979 the Labour manifesto declared that a Labour government would "oppose any move towards turning the Community into a federation" and in 1983 they favoured British withdrawal from the EEC. Under the leadership of Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
after 1983, however, the Labour Party dropped their opposition to the European Communities and instead favoured greater British integration into European Economic and Monetary Union
Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union
The Economic and Monetary Union is an umbrella term for the group of policies aimed at converging the economies of members of the European Union in three stages so as to allow them to adopt a single currency, the euro. As such, it is largely synonymous with the eurozone.All member states of the...
.
However, many commentators believe over-interest in the issue to be an important reason why the Conservative Party lost the General Election of 2001
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
. They argue that the British electorate was more influenced by domestic issues than by European affairs.
After the electoral defeat of the UK Conservatives in 2001, the issue of eurosceptism was important in the contest to elect a new party leader. The winner, Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
, was seen as more eurosceptic than his predecessor, William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
.
As opposition leader, Iain Duncan Smith attempted to disaffiliate the British Conservative Members of the European Parliament
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
(MEPs) from the federalist European People's Party
European People's Party
The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...
Group. As MEPs must maintain a pan-European alliance to retain parliamentary privileges, Duncan Smith sought the merger of Conservative MEPs into the eurosceptic Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN) group. Conservative MEPs vetoed this move because of the presence within the UEN of representatives of neo-fascist parties who do not share similar domestic politics. In 2004, Duncan Smith's successor, Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
, emphasised that Conservative MEPs would remain in the EPP Group so as to maintain influence in the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
. However Michael Howard's successor, David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
pledged to remove Conservative MEPs from the EPP Group which has now been implemented.
The Labour Party is also split between eurosceptic and pro-EU factions. Historically, the party tended towards euroscepticism, but under Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
its policies became generally pro-EU. However, a significant minority of Labour MPs have formed the Labour Against the Euro group, opposing British membership of the single currency. The group has support from minority parts of the Trade Union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
movement, while the majority of trade unions remain staunchly pro-EU.
The UK's third-largest parliamentary party, the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
, is strongly pro-EU and advocate institutional reform to advance European federalism with a greater role for national parliaments in scrutinising EU legislation but a reduced ability (through the raising of Qualified Majority Voting blocking thresholds as in the Lisbon Treaty) to block or amend it.
The United Kingdom Independence Party
United Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
, which advocates the UK's complete withdrawal from the European Union, received 16% of the vote and gained 12 MEPs in the 2004 European Election
European Parliament election, 2004
Elections to the European Parliament were held from 10 June 2004 to 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union, using varying election days according to local custom...
. The Party did even better in the 2009 UK European Election
European Parliament election, 2009 (United Kingdom)
The European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections in England. Most of the results of the election were announced on Sunday 7 June, after...
, coming in second, above the incumbent Labour Party
The Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
(SNP) has tended to be pro-EU since the 1980s. As the SNP's heartlands tend to be in fishing and farming areas of Scotland, they have been seen as a real threat to the pro-European SNP. However, this has not yet emerged. Polls show there is some Euroscepticism in Scotland, but neither UKIP nor the Conservatives have a significant level of support in Scotland.
Press
Among Britain's main national newspapers, those that take a broadly Eurosceptic line are the Daily MailDaily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
, Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
, The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
and The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, as well as their respective Sunday sister publications. These newspapers tend to oppose further European integration and have called for ratification of the Lisbon Treaty to be subject to a referendum. In November 2010, the Daily Express became the first British newspaper to formally call for withdrawal from the EU.
The hard-left daily The Morning Star
The Morning Star
The Morning Star is a left wing British daily tabloid newspaper with a focus on social and trade union issues. Articles and comment columns are contributed by writers from socialist, social democratic, green and religious perspectives....
takes an international-Marxist eurosceptic position. Under the editorship of Mark Seddon
Mark Seddon
-Education:Seddon was educated at Dauntsey's School, an independent school , in the village of West Lavingdon in Wiltshire.-Life and career:...
, Tribune
Tribune (magazine)
Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, founded in 1937 published in London. It is independent but supports the Labour Party from the left...
, the journal of the Labour Movement, tended to give space to eurosceptic contributors, including controversially Marc Glendening of the Democracy Movement
Democracy Movement
The Democracy Movement is a crossparty Eurosceptic pressure group in the UK with around 150 local branches.-History:The Democracy Movement was founded by Lady Annabel Goldsmith in January 1999. She became its President and her son, businessman Robin Birley, served as the organisation's chairman...
. This position was defended by other centre-left eurosceptics who also spoke on platforms with the Democracy Movement.
The European Union has accused the British Press of circulating inaccurate stories which it calls "Euromyths". Although they usually have a grain of truth in them, they often arise from misunderstandings or when the actions of a different European organisation, such as the Council of Europe
Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...
, are erroneously attributed to the EU.
Eurosceptics' criticism of the European Union
Individual complaints about the EU made by Eurosceptics include rising costs of membership, the alleged negative impact of an EU regulatory burden on UK business (including claims that this also affects those businesses engaged in purely domestic exchange or exporting to non-EU markets), and claimed corrosive effects on democracy within all EU member-states, including Britain.Democratic deficit
Some British eurosceptics believe that the supremacy of EU law overly restricts national parliaments' freedom to legislate. They also object to provisions that EU legislation must be proposed by the European CommissionEuropean Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
, which they claim lacks democratic legitimacy because it is elected by the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
and not directly by voters (much like the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
).
Claims of corruption
Opponents of the EU also accuse its politicians and civil servants of being corrupt. They often claim that the EU has never had its accounts signed off by the European Court of AuditorsEuropean Court of Auditors
The Court of Auditors is the fifth institution of the European Union . It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg to audit the accounts of EU institutions...
. Nevertheless, over the recent years the EU's accounts have actually been given a clean bill of health by the ECA, and this claim stems from a confusion on the part of eurosceptics about the difference between a "clean bill of health" and an "unqualified statement of assurance".
Further accusations of corruption have been levelled at the highest level. In 2005, Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage
Nigel Paul Farage MEP , a position he previously held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a current Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group....
MEP requested that the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
disclose where individual Commissioners had spent their holidays, which the Commission rejected on the basis that they had a right to privacy. Eurosceptics have also accused the President of the European Commission
President of the European Commission
The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission ― the executive branch of the :European Union ― the most powerful officeholder in the EU. The President is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or dismiss them if needed...
, José Barroso, for spending a week on the yacht of the Greek shipping billionaire Spiro Latsis
Spiro Latsis
Dr. Spiro J. Latsis is a Greek businessman with a fortune of US$9.1 billion . He ranked 51st on Forbes's 2006 World's Billionaires list. He is the son of the Greek shipping magnate, John Latsis, who died in 2003....
only a month before the Commission approved €10.3 million of Greek state aid for Latsis' shipping company. However, this decision had been made by the previous Commission body, before Barroso had been appointed.
Support for withdrawal
A recent (2010) YouGovYouGov
YouGov, formerly known as PollingPoint in the United States, is an international internet-based market research firm launched in the UK in May 2000 by Stephan Shakespeare, now Chief Executive Officer, and Nadhim Zahawi...
poll found that 47% of voters in the United Kingdom would vote to leave the European Union, while 33% would vote to stay in (with 14% undecided and 5% unwilling to vote
Abstention
Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a voter casts a ballot willfully made invalid by...
). Support and opposition for withdrawal from the Union are not evenly distributed among the different age groups: opposition to EU membership is most prevalent among those 60 and older (57%) but dwindles steadily to only 31% among those aged 18–24. Finally, the results of the poll showed that London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
is the most pro-EU region whereas the Rest of South region is the most eurosceptic.
See also
- Factortame caseFactortame caseThe Factortame litigation led to a series of landmark decisions in United Kingdom and European Union law. The case confirmed the supremacy of European Union law over national law in the areas where the EU has competence...
- Metric martyr
- EuromythEuromyth#A euromyth is what the European Commission calls media stories about its policies which it claims are untrue. Such claims are usually seen as disparaging of the European Commission and its supposed bureaucratic absurdity....
- Straight bananaCommission Regulation (EC) No 2257/94Commission Regulation No 2257/94 of 16 September 1994 laying down quality standards for bananas, also known informally as bendy banana law, is a European Union regulation specifying minimum standards for bananas, which took effect on 1 January 1995....
- EuroscepticismEuroscepticismEuroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...