Foreign policy is rarely decisive in general elections. But it reveals something about the character of a political party and whether its leadership is oriented towards the future or the past.
After the Irish referendum result, a decade of deadening debate over the European Union’s institutional shape is finally coming to an end. Every European government is breathing a sigh of relief. Every mainstream opposition party is looking to the future. Every mainstream opposition party, that is, except the British Conservatives. Because David Cameron is stuck gazing in the rear-view mirror.
The passage of the Lisbon treaty is a massive opportunity for Europe. In the coming decades, as economic and political power shifts eastwards, there is a danger that we could see the emergence of what some call a “G2 world” in which the US and China shape the major decisions on financial regulation, climate change and nuclear proliferation.
I don’t want that. We should strive to create a world in which Europe, with a strong Britain at its heart, is a leading actor. With the world’s biggest single market and largest aid budget, the EU should be a force for peace and stability in foreign policy as well as for dynamism and openness in economic policy.
In the last two years the EU has launched a naval force against piracy off Somalia, sent police and judges to keep the peace in Kosovo, imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe when the United Nations failed, and led the fight against climate change. But if the EU is to help shape the 21st century, it must first make progress in three key areas. In each, the Lisbon treaty will help us to focus on what matters most.
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