On Monday morning the Liberal Democrats Party Conference passed a motion urging the British government to pursue closer ties with the European Union, as part of the party’s long-term objective of seeing the UK rejoin the bloc and take its ‘rightful place back at the heart of Europe.’
Key elements of the Lib Dems’ motion include calling on the government to agree to a European Youth Mobility Scheme, immediately begin talks with Brussels on establishing a new UK-EU customs union, and secure associate membership of the European Defence Agency,
The motion also described the Lib Dems as the ‘only voices in parliament consistently and unashamedly’ calling for a closer relationship with the EU and said the best way to ensure such a relationship is by ensuring that as many Lib Dem MPs and councillors as possible are elected across Britain.
As well as calling for closer ties with the EU, today’s motion also called for Britain to ‘reduce (its) strategic dependence on an unpredictable President Trump.’ The US President was a prominent topic in the debates preceding this morning’s vote, with MP for Tunbridge Wells Mike Martin describing him as the ‘most unreliable’ partner Britain has ever had in the White House, and Hannah Betsworth from the Liberal Democrats in Europe group criticising his Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr for abandoning evidence-based standards.
Bettsworth also described the motion as a ‘no-brainer’ for the UK’s pharmaceutical industry, due to its demand for the British government to secure collaboration and mutual recognition agreements with European regulatory bodies, including the European Medicines Agency and European Chemicals Agency. She argued that the increased efficiency this would bring would help the UK maintain its status as a ‘global life sciences hub’ and ‘defend scientific expertise.’
The debates also made it clear that the Lib Dems believe that Brexit has been a disaster for the UK economy, with the party’s spokesperson for trade Clive Lewis MP claiming that the country’s future prosperity relies on closer relations with Brussels and arguing that red tape caused by the Conservative’s sub-par Brexit negotiations is ‘strangling’ British business.
Lewis claimed that cutting such red tape could generate £25 billion per year for the exchequer, whilst Councillor Richard Kirkpatrick cited the European Movement’s Business Impact Report which found that 97% of companies feel Brexit has been bad for their business and that 98% would support increased access to the single market.Today’s motion hopes to resolve these complaints by calling on the current government to immediately begin talks with on the establishment of a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union.
However arguably the most prominent topic of both the motion and the surrounding debates was defence, with it being the Lib Dems’ position that a closer defensive alliance with European nations is the key to protecting the continent from Russian aggression, at a time when, according to the arguably hyperbolic Mike Martin, the geopolitical landscape of Europe is arguably the worst it’s ever been.
Within the motion the Lib Dems criticise the UK government for failing to make progress on securing associate membership of the European Defence Agency and praise themselves for their efforts to establish a new European Rearmament Bank that would provide funding for defence programmes across Britain and the EU.
Additionally, to highlight just how much emphasis the Lib Dems are placing on national security, 3 of the motion’s 7 calls to action are directly related to the defence sector, with point 5 calling for the government to secure the aforementioned associate EDA member status, point 6 calling for the expansion of defensive co-operation with EU and NATO member states, and point 7 calling on Downing Street to commit to ‘recognise the importance of promoting stability in the Balkans’ by joining the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Furthermore, one of the 2 amendments made to the motion criticised the government for failing to secure access to the EU’s Security Action for Europe fund; this amendment passed with an overwhelming majority.
Invited to speak during this morning’s debate was Edward Lucas, a journalist, security expert, and the man behind the aforementioned European Rearmament Bank proposal. He argued that Europe was at ‘5 minutes past midnight when it comes to…security’ and said that the continent had an ‘enormous task’ ahead when it comes to defending itself against ‘imperialist’ Russia.
Lucas also added that the USA was no longer a reliable defence partner for the UK, echoing a sentiment party leader Ed Davey displayed in an interview with PoliticsUK on Sunday, and thus they would not be welcome in his proposed bank, which he said would see rearmament efforts actually make Europeans safer, as opposed to merely doubling the share prices of arms manufacturers.
Overall, in passing this motion, the Liberal Democrats have sought to draw a dividing line between themselves and both the Conservative and Labour parties, positioning themselves as the most unequivocally pro-European force in British politics.
Today’s debates underlined how deeply the party sees closer cooperation with the EU as not only an economic necessity but also a strategic imperative in an increasingly unstable world. By tying together calls for deeper defence integration, increased life-sciences collaboration, and a new UK EU Customs Union, the Lib Dems are betting that voters share their belief that Britain’s future security and prosperity lie firmly in Europe, and that the long-term path inevitably leads back towards EU membership.
