“The question – and it is a very real one – is can the SNP and the Labour Party in Scotland do anything other than fight each other for the next five years? On this it has been encouraging that the London based UK leadership of Jeremy Corbyn has appointed Jon Trickett an influential Shadow Cabinet member with an additional task of embracing a cross-party Constitutional Convention. The prospect of
Browsing Category EU & Brexit
Europe Restructured: The Eurozone Crisis and the UK Referendum. Revised edition now available
Former Foreign Secretary, Lord David Owen, a lifelong European, says “Without a very different renegotiation, for the first time in my life I could well vote ‘No’ to remaining in the EU. Continuing with much the same EU is not supportable.”
In his book Europe Restructured Lord Owen provides a negotiable blueprint for a restructured EU Single Market within the European Economic Area. It allows for more and more opt …
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David Owen highlights need for parity for Eurozone and non-Eurozone countries within the EU”.
Letter published in the Guardian, 28 May 2014:
On the issue of fiscal convergence, David Cameron must not repeat the mistake of Margaret Thatcher who ignored Nigel Lawson’s twice-repeated warning…. that “the inclusion of European monetary union as a treaty objective would be a political commitment going well beyond previous references to EMU.” Without a parity of esteem for an EU of multiple currencies there can be no basis for …
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Lord Owen says the “limited, tinkering reforms” of the EU which David Cameron envisages by 2017 will not suffice.
“The situation will be very different to the 1975 UK referendum. BREXIT will by then be forced on to the agenda in a very risky way.”
Speech by the Rt Hon Lord Owen to LSE German Symposium on Wednesday, 11 March 2015 in reply to the Symposium question, “to what extent is the nation state an antiquated notion?”
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Lord Owen seeks clarification from the Attorney General on the Luxembourg Compromise
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Lord Owen argues that the Prime Minister is perfectly entitled in Brussels to invoke the Luxembourg Compromise
David Cameron is reputed to be considering using the Luxemburg Compromise in the European Council meeting this week. He is not only fully entitled to do so, but the circumstances mirror the situation whereby an arrangement was reached by European Community Member States in January 1966 allowed for a decision requiring majority voting in the Council of Ministers to be postponed until unanimous agreement had been reached. That became known …
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European Union (Referendum) Bill – Lord Owen’s Speech
Second Reading, Friday 10 January 2014
Lord Owen (CB)
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, must be correct that the procedure that should be followed in a perfect world would be the one that he outlined. The trouble is that we do not live in a perfect world, and we never have done. Europe splits parties and families, and has been doing so for 40 years. That is what …
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We Must Start to Prepare Now for an EU Referendum
This autumn is the obvious time to start negotiating with Europe – ideally followed by a vote next year
Article published in The Evening Standard 20 May 2013
No British prime minister can abdicate from the continuous negotiating process that is the reality of EU membership. After the German elections in September, any German chancellor will find it essential to start negotiating with David Cameron and not wait until 2017.
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