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Thursday marked the tenth birthday party of the Centre for European reform which I helped to found in the 1990s. The CER has done outstanding work under the leadership of Charles Grant. It was set up with two purposes: to help reshape the debate in Europe about the future of the EU, and to help reshape the debate in Britain about its relationship to the EU. The CER has been strikingly more successful in one than the other (you can guess which). In terms of the debate about the future direction of the EU, there is a different EU than ten years ago - marked by enlargement as well as EMU. The CER has contributed to that - issues like Turkish accession, defence co-operation, and energy security (including relations with Russia) have been led from the CER. But the debate in Britain often seems stuck in a prism of 1940s Europe rather than the present day. Sometimes the EU has contributed to its own difficulties - whether with qualified accounts or interminable institutional wrangling and that is why the Reform word is important in the CER's title. But we also have to update our own way of engaging. Here are some starters. We don't need to see or describe the EU as a plot from which we are seeking perpetual protection - other countries also want to maintain sovereignty on key issues like foreign policy and the agenda for the EU is now dominated by issues of shared interest not invasions of sovereignty. We can benefit from as well as lead European debate - it is not a one way street. We should trumpet the modern successes of the EU - from climate change to trade and stability on our borders in the new accession countries. We need to see reform as a shared project - negotiating successfully with Russia on a Europe wide basis is in all our interests, so is continuing the reform of the CAP and the greening of the budget. To comment click
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