21 July 2013

Telegraph: Leader of French Right warns Cameron he will lose EU referendum

Jean-François Copé, president of France's main centre-Right UMP Party, was supportive of the Prime Minister's mission to claw back certain "competences" from the EU but said his pledge to put Britain's EU membership to a vote could only end up in rejection.

"Even in France, nobody can win a referendum on Europe. It just doesn't work anymore. The No wins out every time largely because in referendums – and we are speaking from experience – people end up answering questions that are not the ones being posed." Despite it being backed by all the mainstream political parties, the French voted "non" to a 2005 referendum on whether to endorse a new EU constitutional treaty. "It would be terrible to see a Europe without Britain, which is one of its pillars", Copé added.

France's Socialist president, François Hollande, warned that any renegotiation of powers "risks splintering Europe". Mr Copé, who last month received an overwhelming mandate from 90,000 party members to lead the UMP until 2016, was far less critical saying he had no problem looking at the "distribution of competences".

Mr Copé said he supported the British government's decision to conduct an ongoing audit of what the EU does and how it affects the UK.  "It will be a very instructive document and I think France should do the same", he said. "I'm interested in the idea of evaluation and if it doesn't work then change it", he said. For Mr Copé, immigration, for example, should be a "national policy".

Earlier this week, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy came out of self-imposed political exile to deliver a speech at UMP headquarters in which he too argued: "The European Union mustn't hesitate to hand back powers and concentrate on its core".

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© The Telegraph