Europe

The Conservative Party believes Britain's interests are best served by membership of a European Union that is an association of its Member States. A Conservative Government would never allow Britain to slide into a federal Europe. The Conservative Party supports an open, flexible Europe, whose priorities should be what really matter to the peoples of Europe: global competitiveness, global poverty and global warming. A Conservative Government would be active and energetic in the EU, promoting Britain's interest and engaging in the shared challenges all European countries face.

Labour and the Lib Dems promised the British people a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty but broke their promise. Their behaviour was a betrayal of democracy. The Lisbon Treaty has now been absorbed as part of European law and the new posts it created have now been established. They cannot be made to disappear and the Lisbon Treaty cannot now be reversed.

So the Conservative Party has set out a series of measures to deal with the worst problems caused by the Treaty.

A Conservative Government would change the law so that never again would a government be able to agree to a Treaty that hands over areas of power from Britain to the EU without a referendum.

A Conservative Government would also introduce a new law, in the form of a United Kingdom Sovereignty Bill, to make it clear that ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament.

Furthermore, as the Lisbon Treaty contains a mechanism to abolish vetoes and transfer power without the need for a new Treaty, a Conservative Government would change the law so that any use of a so-called ratchet clause would require full approval by Parliament.

These policies deal with future problems, but there are still problems we are facing today, which will now be made worse by the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. These problems boil down to the steady and unaccountable intrusion of the European Union into almost every aspect of our lives.

A Conservative Government will address the worst of these problems by negotiating for three specific guarantees over powers that we believe should reside with Britain, not the EU:

• A full opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR). Tony Blair told us that he had obtained an opt-out from the CFR, but he did not. As Ministers have subsequently admitted, he only obtained a 'clarification' as to how it would apply. We want to upgrade this to a full opt-out so that the CFR, which for instance would interfere with our trade union legislation, cannot be made to apply in Britain.
• Greater protection against EU encroachment into the UK's Criminal Justice System. Lisbon provides us with an 'opt-in' over criminal justice matters but we want broader protection provided by an additional protocol. This would protect against EU judges extending their control over our Criminal Justice System, and we also want to ensure that only British authorities can initiate criminal investigations in Britain.
• Restoration of national control over social and employment legislation. Lastly, we want to restore national control over those parts of social and employment legislation which have proved most damaging to the British economy. For instance, we would seek guarantees over the application of the Working Time Directive in our public services, such as the fire service and the NHS.