THE TELEGRAPH: Nick Clegg has defended his party’s pro-European stance ahead of this week’s televised debate on foreign policy, after being accused of trying to take Britain into a "super-state".
The Liberal Democrat leader admitted the European Union was “flawed”, claiming it spent 15 years drawing up a directive on the definition of chocolate.
He insisted Britain was stronger working with the 27-member bloc rather than “raising the drawbridge” and standing outside it.
However he said the Lib Dems, if elected, would let the public decide on the basic question of whether Britain should remain within the EU by holding a referendum when the subject next arose.
His claims - made in a series of talks and interviews out on the campaign trail in south London - come ahead of Thursday’s leaders’ debate, to be broadcast on Sky News, which will focus on foreign policy.
He is likely to be characterised by the Conservatives as a fierce supporter of the European super-state, who would have made Britain’s recession worse by ditching sterling in favour of the euro. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, told a Sunday newspaper that Mr Clegg would "sign up for anything that has ever been on offer or proposed from the European Union".
Mr Clegg himself has a Dutch mother and a half-Russian father, is married to a Spaniard and has worked in the European Commission and as an MEP. He gave an interview in fluent Dutch to a radio station based in the Netherlands outside the church where he was speaking on international development on Sunday morning.
Asked earlier how he would respond to attacks over his stance on Europe, he said: “Is Europe perfect? Clearly not. Anything that takes 15 years to define what chocolate is, is not a model of democratic efficiency. The European Union has come up with daft decisions.”
But he pointed to the banking system, terrorism, crime, disease and climate change as areas that cross national borders and claimed that the Conservatives opposed European measures that led to the arrest and extradition of one of the July 21 bombers, and the break-up of an international paedophile ring.
Mr Clegg asked: “Do we really think that we can pull up the drawbridge, and ranting and raving at Europe from the sidelines is really going to help us be stronger or safer? The weather doesn’t stop at the cliffs of Dover.
“I think we are stronger together and weaker apart.” >>> Martin Beckford | Sunday, April 18, 2010
