Former British prime minister Gordon Brown delivered a fervent defence of Britain's membership of the European Union on Wednesday, arguing that continued membership would safeguard Britain's social rights, economic health and future security.
Addressing members of the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group at the European Parliament in Brussels, Mr Brown said the European Union had helped to ensure "a social dimension to the market place", as he set out the economic benefits of EU membership.
The man who presided over Britain’s decision not to join the single currency in the late 1990s said the rapid emergence of globalisation since the 1980s had made countries inevitably more “integrated and entangled with each other”.
“I want to see the Britain that is outward looking, the Britain that is engaged with the world, the Britain that is internationally-minded triumph over the Britain that wants to stand alone, stand isolated, be an island onto itself and a race apart.” The idea that sovereign states alone could solve the world’s problems was unrealistic, he said.
Outlining three challenges he believed faced the EU, Mr Brown called on it to open up digital, financial and other services to help create jobs. He also urged greater co-operation on energy to help fight climate change, as well as decisive EU-wide action on tackling corporate tax avoidance. A special fund to help countries deal with migration should also be considered, he said, in a nod to significant public apprehension in Britain about immigration.
Praising the European Union's role in maintaining peace across the continent, he noted that Europe had been at war for more than 1,000 years.
“After years and centuries of conflict, Europe is not only at peace . . . it has found a structure of decision-making where we make decisions not through armaments but through arguments we have together, and by debate and by dialogue.”
Mr Brown was addressing members of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group to which the British Labour Party is affiliated. Though the Labour Party is nominally in favour of Britain staying in the European Union, its leader Jeremy Corbyn has maintained a low profile on the issue.
Schulz intervention
Mr Brown’s visit spurred one of the strongest interventions yet from European Parliament president
Martin Schulz
in the British referendum campaign. A fellow social democrat, Mr Schulz said that Britain had to move away from a “book-keeping approach” to the EU which focused on budget contributions and costs, especially as the economic benefits of remaining in the European Union were clear.
He highlighted workers’ rights, affordable travel, high quality food and water as the main benefits of the EU.
Addressing the concerns of those who fear the creation of a federalist Europe, Mr Schulz said that membership of the EU was not about giving up sovereignty.
“I do not want to do away with the nation state. Our wish to remain British, or German or French or Italian, for example, is obvious [...] what we need in the 21st century is a smart coexistence between the regional, national and European level . . . The European Union is not about giving up sovereignty, it’s about taking back control in a globalised world.”
He said that while some member states will move forward with greater integration, Britain will not be forced to do so.
“The UK has never been obliged, or even pressurised to feel obliged, to join any area of EU integration,” he said, noting Britain’s decision not to join the single currency, the Schengen free-travel area and its opt-out from certain justice and home affairs legislation.
"I am strongly convinced that the United Kingdom is better in the European Union," he said.
