BRITISH PRIME MINISTER David Cameron’s long-awaited speech on Britain’s relationship with Europe, which was postponed because of the Algerian hostage crisis, will take place this week, a senior minister said earlier today.
“It will happen this week. We will make an announcement on when and where tomorrow (Monday),” Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Andrew Marr programme on BBC television earlier today.
Cameron had been due to travel to the Netherlands for last Friday’s speech but cancelled it at the last minute to deal with the attack on the In Amenas gas complex, in which six Britons and one British resident are feared to have died.
The Telegraph reports that the Prime Minister will make a historic pledge to hold a ‘in/out’ referendum on European Union membership after the next general election in 2015.
According to extracts of the speech given to the media before it was called off, Cameron was expected to warn that Britain could drift out of the European Union unless the bloc meets key challenges.
Britons were tiring of the EU’s “lack of democratic accountability”, he planned to say, warning: “If we don’t address these challenges, the danger is that Europe will fail and the British people will drift towards the exit.”
Any referendum would likely be held in 2018 and would be subject to the Conservative Party returning to power in two years time.
The main opposition party, Labour, is reluctant to commit to any in/out referendum if it is in government after the next election.
- additional reporting from Hugh O’Connell
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