Angela Merkel’s visit to London today has shown once again that relations between the United Kingdom and Germany are excellent. We are close partners in the European Union and have similar views on securing long-term economic growth, competitiveness, financial stability, a free trade deal with the US, better regulation and fighting red tape.
The prime minister has committed the Conservative party to renegotiating Britain’s relationship with the EU and holding a referendum. The people in the UK will decide, and Germany will respect that decision. However, this is an issue that concerns us in Germany directly.
I strongly believe the future of the UK is in the EU. As leading industrial and exporting nations both can only do well in the long run if Europe does well, too. A united Europe is our answer to the major challenges we are facing worldwide – such as economic and financial difficulties, climate change, pressure on resources, migration, security, peace building or the respect for human rights and civil liberties.
No single European member state can cope with these challenges on its own. In our contemporary world, every European country is a small country.
The EU is much more than a set of rules governing the single market and the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. It is a unique and historic project that has unified our European continent. Nation states voluntarily have chosen to come together to pool sovereignty because they believe that together they are stronger.
Jean-Claude Juncker has made clear that one of his top five priorities as president of the European Commission will be to give an answer to the British question. He is absolutely right! No reasonable politician can ignore that during the next five years, if we want to keep Britain within the EU.
We ought to work for a fair deal that accepts the special interests of the UK in the EU.
On the one hand the UK will need to understand that in the eurozone we need more integration, not less. Furthermore the integrity of the single market and its four freedoms are out of the question. On the other hand, the other EU member states will have to accept that the UK will never participate in the euro, even if we may regret this. We will also have to accept that the UK won’t become a member of the Schengen area.
In the 1957 Treaty of Rome, the signatories pledged to work towards “an ever closer union”. The fact is we actually already have an ever closer union in many political fields. But differentiated cooperation between the member states is possible, as the eurozone or the Schengen area prove.
There is a choice in both our countries we can and should make together: reform the EU to put growth, competitiveness and jobs back at the heart of its priorities.
As German Christian Democrats we will be ready to talk to our British friends about these demands in a fair and reasonable manner. So, let us do all we can to make good progress along a constructive and common path.
