Brexit

The following document has been released by the European Commission: The Heads of State or Government of the 28 EU Member States meeting within the European Council, whose Governments are signatories of the Treaties on which the EU is founded, DESIRING to settle, in conformity with the Treaties, certain issues raised by the United Kingdom in its letter of 10 November 2015, INTENDING to clarify in this Decision certain questions of particular importance to the Member States so that such clarification will have to be taken into consideration as being an instrument for the interpretation of the Treaties; intending as well to agree arrangements for matters including the role of national Parliaments in the EU and

In the past week, David Cameron has held a number of last-minute talks with EU counterparts in the hope of agreeing a deal that can be put to EU leaders ahead of a summit on 18 February. This included a visit to Brussels on Friday to hold renegotiation talks with EP president Martin Schulz. Alas a flag gaffe on the part of workers at the European Parliament may have led to distress all round. Word reaches Steerpike that on the day of Cameron’s visit, the Union flag outside Parliament was hung upside down. The thick white parts of the diagonal cross ought to be above the thinner white parts — as historical advisor

Why is David Cameron having such trouble persuading Jean-Claude Juncker to give in to his minimal demands for EU reform? The Prime Minister pledged, in a Tory manifesto, to restrict welfare for migrants for the first four years they’re in Britain: not as an ‘emergency’, but as a matter of routine. He was returned with a majority, and under British democracy this means it ought to happen. If the Lords were to try to frustrate this, the PM would overrule them because it was a manifesto pledge, voted on by the public. Why accept a veto from the EU? But the polls show a clear lead for ‘in’ – a ComRes

Although a number of rival groups are currently vying to be the official Out campaign, it seems that some members of the In campaign’s Britain Stronger in Europe group appear to be having a harder time remembering what to call themselves. Britain Stronger In Europe’s chairman Stuart Rose was unable to name the campaign he fronts, during an interview with Sky News. Instead, Rose listed a number of alternative campaign names in the hope that he would get it right: ‘I’m chairman of Stay in Britain.. Better in Britain campaign.. right start again. I’m Stuart Rose and I’m the chairman of the Better in Britain campaign… the Better stay in Britain campaign.’ While Mr

‘So what’s your alternative?’ demand Euro-enthusiasts. ‘D’you want Britain to be like Norway? Or like Switzerland? Making cuckoo clocks? Is that what you want? Is it? Eh?’ The alternative to remaining in a structurally unsafe building is, of course, walking out; but I accept that this won’t quite do as an answer. Although staying in the EU is a greater risk than leaving — the migration and euro crises are deepening, and Britain is being dragged into them — change-aversion is deep in our genome, and we vote accordingly. Europhiles know that most referendums go the way of the status quo, which is why their campaign is based around conjuring

George Osborne’s Newsnight interview has drawn ire from the Eurosceptics chiefly because the Chancellor used it to stamp on any suggestion that there might be a second EU referendum in which Brussels offered the UK all the changes it wanted in the first place in order to tempt it back into the European Union. But Osborne also reiterated last night that the ‘Treasury is 100 per cent now focused on achieving the renegotiation’ and wasn’t drawing up contingency plans for Brexit. The problem for ministers is that any admission or leak of such contingency plans would be written up as a Whitehall panic, or a secret desire on the part

David Cameron’s admission on the Marr Show this morning that the EU referendum might take place either a little later in 2016 than most expected or indeed in 2017 isn’t what has exercised eurosceptics. From their point of view, a later referendum will give them more time to set out their arguments for a change from the status quo. But what has annoyed them is the Prime Minister’s suggestion that the government was not drawing up contingency plans for Britain voting to leave the European Union. Marr asked him whether the government was prepared for the possibility of leaving the EU. Cameron replied: ‘I don’t think that is the right

It’s nearly Christmas. That means it’s the time for carols, goodwill to all men and… leaving the EU — that’s according to the Bow Group anyway. The conservative think tank have released their traditional ‘Bow Group Christmas Fairytale’ read by John Redwood, the MP for Wokingham. This year it has a Brexit theme: ‘Red Riding Hood — a very modern fairytale of life in the European woods.’ And who takes on the role of the big bad wolf? Well, Mr EU of course.

As David Cameron prepares to make his case to European leaders over dinner this evening, the Out campaign is stepping up its preparations for the referendum. Vote Leave will host 10 regional launches in the New Year and appoint campaign directors for each region. It’ll also hire staff to work at a constituency level. Combine this with a central campaign team that contains former senior aides to Theresa May, Michael Gove and Philip Hammond and you have the basis for a formidable operation. With the backing of senior business figures such as Crispin Odey and Luke Johnson, they also shouldn’t have any trouble raising money. But the campaign itself is

Two new opinion polls suggest that support is growing for Britain to leave the European Union. Today’s Daily Telegraph reports on an ICM survey which shows that half of voters back Brexit, if the undecideds are excluded: the first time since 2013 that voters are evenly split. But when the undecided voters are included, it is a much tighter split: 42 per cent would vote to stay in, compared to 41 per cent for leaving. It’s a similar story in a Survation survey in today’s Daily Express, which has a five-times larger 10,000 sample size. This survey reports that 42 per cent want to leave the EU, compared to 40 per cent who would vote to stay in. Taking

Oh dear. David Cameron’s speech to the Confederation of British Industry got off to a shaky start today after he was heckled by Brexit protesters. While the CBI had opted to leave members of the Vote Leave campaign off of the invite list, two protesters managed to sneak in and get their own anti-EU message across. As the Prime Minister gave a speech in which he said that he could work with business leaders to keep ‘Britain in a reformed Europe’ after a successful renegotiation, protesters held up a banner and shouted that the CBI is the ‘voice of Brussels’: Exclusive: watch anti-CBI hecklers interrupt PM speech (& forgive my