The renegotiation may be richer in symbolism than substance,so the remain camp is shrewdly focusing on the deeper issue. Namely, the importance of the UK engaging with the rest of the continentIn his speech to the Conservative conference last week, and David Cameron promised to “fight tough in his renegotiation of European Union membership,but he gave only one example ofthe kind of victory he has in intellect. Britain is not interested in ‘ever-closer union’,” he said. “I will put that right.”This is a tactical game. The “ever-closer union” formula comes from the Treaty of Rome, or the EU’s founding text. Quitters see it as proof that the project has federalising momentum in its DNA; so only exit can save the UK from absorption into a United States of Europe. But it is an open secret in Brussels that some form of exemption from “ever-closer union” – a protocol attached to the treaties – is available in the negotiations. The PM is setting the bar symbolically tall and virtually low. The rest of the short negotiation wishlist reported on in the Sunday Telegraph was similarly emblematic – such as an explicit” statement that the euro is not the EU’s official currency,a mere nod at the established reality that sterling is here to stay. Downing Street insists it has not given up on grittier policy questions, but the emphasis on icons nonetheless represents an important realisation that a referendum fought defending the technicalities of a deal will be harder to win than one fought on the broader question of whether Britain is better or worse off inside the club.
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Source: theguardian.com