Haus Curiosities
2 total works
In "Europe Restructured," David Owen lays out a blueprint for a new structure where those countries that may wish to be part of a more integrated EU/eurozone are facilitated in doing so, while those who may only want a Single Market/European Community are free to do so. He suggests building on the Single Market European Economic Area of 30 states including Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein, and inviting Turkey to join. This, with Croatia joining the EU next year, would make 32 countries and some others later. "Europe Restructured" recounts the key historical events in Britain's equivocal relationship with the Common Market, European Community, and now Union, from 1962-2012, and considers how Britain's place in the EU affects her other global foreign and defense relationships, in particular with the United States. All this leads David Owen to the conclusion that urgently in 2013, or more likely in 2015-2016, a referendum will have to be held in the UK. He wants a clear referendum choice in the UK.
As David Owen notes in The UK's In-Out Referendum, the European Union's attempts at conflict resolution have left much to be desired. In the Ukraine, Baltic States, Turkey, and much of the Middle East, a lack of coherent policy has dominated. This book argues that the negotiations around the United Kingdom's referendum vote represent an opportunity to enact wide-scale reform, not least to ensure that the nations of an increasingly politically integrated Eurozone do not come to dominate the foreign and security policy of the European Union in the years to come. To allow them to do so, Owen argues, would almost certainly see the policy of "common defense" advance at the expense of a lasting US commitment to NATO. Ultimately, Owen contends, Britain's continued membership of a largely unreformed European Union would have serious implications for the United Kingdom's security, and that foreign policy and security belong at the heart of the reforms the European Union so desperately needs.