PRESS RELEASE : Vote Leave response to Donald Tusk’s letter
The press release issued by Vote Leave on 7 December 2015.
Responding to Donald Tusk’s letter to the EU Heads of Government, Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of Vote Leave, said:
“In an effort to secure a deal at any cost, David Cameron is only asking for trivial things, not the “fundamental change” he used to say we need.
That’s why he is now having a manufactured row with the EU to try and make his renegotiation sound more significant than it really is.
People are fed up with politics as usual and want real change. They want an end to the supremacy of EU law, to take back control of our borders and to stop sending £350 million a week to Brussels. The only way to do that is to Vote Leave.”
Notes to Editors
The full text of the letter can be found here: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/12/07-tusk-letter-to-28ms-on-uk/
David Cameron has dropped 9 out of ten of his promises to change the EU. These include the promise he made just a year ago that ‘we want EU jobseekers to have a job offer before they come here’ (speech at JCB, 28 November 2014, link) and his promise of a ‘complete opt out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights (speech on EU, 4 November 2009, link). Neither promise is part of the Government’s renegotiation, as the Foreign Secretary told the European Scrutiny Committee on 17 November.
Discussions about ‘sovereignty’ and ‘subsidiarity’ are trivial. Nothing in the promised package of reforms will end the supremacy of EU law over laws passed by the British Parliament. Clarifying the meaning of the words ‘ever closer union’ will not change this.
The Prime Minister has no plans to restore control of our borders. He is instead focused on minor changes to welfare – and even there, the President of the European Council says there is ‘presently no consensus’ on the Prime Minister’s demands.
The President of the European Council is clear that the UK will not be allowed ‘a veto right’ to stop new EU legislation that discriminates against British businesses.
Promises of reforms to boost competitiveness should not be taken seriously. The EU’s Lisbon Agenda of 2000 promised that ‘an average economic growth rate of around 3% should be a realistic prospect for the coming years.’ These promises were not fulfilled and similar pledges today are not credible.
