The Family Meal: What brings us together?
The EU and the World Food Programme (WFP) work together to ensure every familly can enjoy nutritious meals every day. In order to raise awareness to the topic of food assistance, the EU and...
By: European Union Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection
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The Family Meal: What brings us together? - Video
Halszi
Town Twinning 2014 Co-funded by the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union.
By: biznisreferencie.sk
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Halszi - Video
Mr Hammond said Brussels will not be able to extinguish demands for a vote Foreign Secretary claimed the EU has become a 'putative superstate' He said 'politicians do not have the power to stop' UK bid to return power
By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline
Published: 07:18 EST, 17 October 2014 | Updated: 09:52 EST, 17 October 2014
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the EU is now a 'putative superstate'
Britain is 'lighting a fire under the European Union' by pledging an in-out referendum, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said today.
Mr Hammond said Brussels would not be able to extinguish public demands for a vote on Britain's membership of the EU following the Prime Minister's pledge to hold a referendum by 2017.
The Foreign Secretary, who remarks are among the most Eurosceptic ever made by a serving Cabinet minister, added that the EU has become a 'putative superstate' without Britain's say-so.
Mr Hammond's claim came in a Commons debate today on a Tory bid to guarantee an EU referendum in law after the next election.
He told the House that the issue was 'surely the most important strategic question facing this country', adding: 'We are lighting a fire under the European Union by this piece of legislation.
'We are setting off a process that politicians and governments do not have the power to stop.'
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UK 'lighting a fire under the European Union' boasts Philip Hammond
We need to settle this once and for all for the sake of Britain, he said.
"It is right that the British people should make the decision on whether the United Kingdom stays in the European Union or leaves altogether just as it was right that the Scottish people made the decision about their future in the UK.
"Every poll shows that whatever their view on the answer to that question the overwhelming majority want the right to decide.
"In the 41 years since the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community, in the 39 years since we last had a referendum on Europe, the EU has changed profoundly.
"It has grown enormously in its power and its reach. It's grown in its competences, its legislation has spread and the role of the European Parliament has increased almost beyond recognition at the expense of the other European institutions.
"It has morphed from a common market into a putative superstate.
"Put plainly, Europe today is very different from the Europe people voted for in 1975 and yet the British people have never been asked whether they agreed with any of these changes.
"So it should be no surprise to us that democratic support for the EU is fragile to put it diplomatically. Ever closer union has led to ever greater disillusionment."
Mr Hammond added: "This is surely the most important strategic question facing this country today - the future of our relationship with the European Union. And it is a question on which we should trust the instincts of the British people."
Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, said there was no appetite in Europe for the reforms Mr Cameron wants, which he said would require treaty change.
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Britain is 'lighting a fire' under the European Union, says Philip Hammond
Plans for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU have cleared their first hurdle in the Commons by 283 to 0, majority 283.
The Conservatives turned out in force to ensure the European Union (Referendum) Bill won a second reading - for the second time, after an identical backbench Bill failed in the Lords earlier this year despite being agreed by MPs.
Bob Neill, MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, moved the Private Member's Bill and saw it agreed by the massive majority after the Tories staged a division by calling both aye and no.
The Bill, which is opposed by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, faces a tough legislative timetable to make it to the statute book.
Speaking during the Commons debate on the Bill, Mr Neill said: "This Bill is about choice - it's about giving the British people a choice about something which is fundamental to our constitutional arrangements and it is fundamental to our future.
"That choice is important because the future of the arrangements with our neighbours require legitimacy and require consent. It is some 40 years since that consent was last sought - much has changed since and it is fair and reasonable for people to be given that choice again.
"It is about trust, it's about trust in this House and it is about trust in our democratic institutions. It is also, I suggest, a time to put up or shut up. If there are people here who do not believe the British people should be given that choice, then now is the time for them to say so."
He was backed by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who told the Commons: "This is surely the most important strategic question facing this country today - the future of our relationship with the European Union.
"And it is a question on which we should trust the instincts of the British people."
Mr Hammond added: "The ultimate decision of whether to leave or whether to stay should be for the British people.