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Political Economy

Initial Sweden's reaction to Cameron's EU speech - It will be tough for at home and in the EU

Wednesday, 23 January 2013
After the speech delivered by the British Prime minister on the future of British in the EU, some reaction have started coming into the press and we thought that we could start looking at them

Under intense pressure from his economy which is not growing and his promise of deficit reduction has been having bumps with borrowing persistently growing, the mode of the British people is not good.
The main opposition, Labour is not helping the situation with solace or an "alternation".

Then, in comes the populist right-winger UK independence party, (UKIP) identifying that one of the reason Britain is struggling has to do with its membership in the EU. "We spend more on the EU and get nothing back," Nigel Farage, the leader of the party said on BBC. As people struggle to get jobs and the cost of living is skyrocketing, the UKIP has successfully made the growing discontented British public to believe that the there is influx of immigrants into the UK come here and take their jobs, housing, school places, put pressure of hospitals and collect British benefits and welfare system

With all this right wing rhetoric, including the UKIP's call for a referendum on the British member in the EU, the party's performing on the opinion polls have been impressive with member support leaving the Conservatives to UKIP. This is seen as threat to the Conservative Tory party of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Some the back benchers of the Tory party started threatening to revolt if Mr Cameron don't call for that referendum, something that he had proposed while in opposition. Poor David Cameron is thus forced to cave in and that is why we had the speech today.

So, to satisfy his backbenchers, Cameroon had to speak their language - that which may see Britain withdrawing from the EU if the PM's party gain majority in the election of 2015. Then he will call for the referendum in 2017

But before that, he wants to win support from allies in Europe because he still believe that Britain will be better in Europe than out of Europe. His first criticism from Sweden comes from the fact that his speech was been perceived to lack details.

Swedish television EU commentator, Rolf Fredriksson, writes that the British Prime Minister's speech on the UK's position on the EU was a speech in which he pointed out a number of problems that probably many agree are real weaknesses and difficulties of today's European Union. Moreover, it was delivered with the British, rhetorical clarity and elegance, but the there were no clarity about what specific changes Cameron would want.
"For it is easy to say that the EU should become more efficient, less bureaucratic and more citizen-oriented, but it gets harder when it comes to the discussion about exactly what to change or what decisions are to be moved from the EU back to national parliaments and governments" writes Rolf.

On Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's leading newspaper, its EU correspondent, Henrik Brors writes that Mr Cameron speech answers three questions about Britain's relationship with the European Union - how other countries see Britain's vacillating attitude to the Union where he points out that this approach has been ongoing since the UK joined the EU but became stronger under Cameron, driven turbulent domestic political problems.

Henrik Brors continues that getting Britain through a renegotiation of the terms of EU membership will depend on what makes Britain, especially how domestic politics and where David Cameron stand. Some countries, such as Germany and Sweden, are very keen to keep Britain in the EU, since they have the same views on issues related to trade and the internal market. While other countries, with France in the lead, see Britain as counterparty in such matters. Therefore, probably the countries that wants to keep Britain in the EU will become more vocal in their discussions.

But the other governments which assumes that no member country can "pick and choose" among the EU policies, can leave if they want to. The requirement to get rid of labour market regulations and be able to stop the labour movement from other EU countries that Cameron wants, most other EU countries are likely to say no to that.

Then Henrik Brors conclude on what a full-scale withdrawal from the EU would mean for EU cooperation is that it would change the balance of power in the EU, where the more control-oriented countries would have greater opportunity to push through their proposals.

What the overall economic impact would be determined by whether Britain would remain in the EU internal market, such as Norway. It will probably be what all parties would want regardless of the outcome of negotiations and referendum. This will means the reintroduction of customs duties and could hit business and thus the whole of Europe. Would Britain be able to start renegotiating all the various trade agreements that are needed for it to cooperate with a wider EU as Norway or Switzerland?

Generally, in Sweden it is held that much of Cameron's speech was given to win the support of Britain's allies in Europe, particularly, to traditional allied governments of the Netherlands, the Nordic countries and German. A Europe that is more focused on improving the competitiveness of companies in Europe, less rules and red tape for businesses, more free trade with countries outside the EU and lesser EU bureaucracy are all the stuff that Cameron can get support from these countries.

But the devil is in the details. EU Working Time Directive is often criticized in the UK because it has stricter rules for overtime and weekend work than that of the British has historically been. But the trade unions in the UK say aspects of the EU working time rules are good, and companies in Germany and France think it is good to have common rules and that EU companies compete on similar terms.

It is expected that more reactions to David Cameron speech will come after he talks in Davos World Economic Forum tomorrow.

In Sweden the talk is that there is a debate about that there really is a need to be profound changes in EU cooperation as David Cameron has now started. The question is whether it leads to a new EU or to an increasingly fragmented EU where the UK lead a domino effect on other members.
Scancomark.com Team

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