The easy option, the crowd pleaser, would have simply been to play the British eurosceptics’ game, to cut the ground from them them electorally, at least in theory, by promising an in-out referendum on the EU. And let us be clear, the raucous demand for an in-out referendum, has nothing to do with any agenda-free desire to test the people’s will or particular affection for plebiscitory democracy, and everything to do with advancing the cause of withdrawal.
British Labour leader Ed Miliband has now confounded the critics who had seen in Labour's silence to date evidence of a looming opportunist jump on the Ukip bandwagon. By backing reform of the EU while promising a referendum only if there is a new transfer of powers to Brussels, he has gone some way to neutralising any claims that Labour is uncritical of the EU or unwilling to let the British people have their say on membership.
At the same time he has come up with a formula that means, as he admitted, that any such poll is most unlikely. Realistically the only likely Brusselswards transfer of powers on the EU political horizon are powers associated with the strengthening of common euro governance, provisions that will not apply to non-euro states like the UK.
Miliband faces what is likely to be a tough general election campaign next year in which Labour is currently favourite to win power, probably in a minority position with Lib Dem support. His referendum compromise will help reassure both jittery businesses whose investment strategies have been thrown into confusion by uncertainty over fears of a UK withdrawal and Lib Dem voters who deserted their party for Labour and might be tempted to return to the fold. It helps to brand Miliband as a pragmatist in the centre ground of politics that Prime Minister David Cameron has ceded in deference to his eurosceptical backbenchers.
And across the Irish Sea, a sigh of relief at a step back by our neighbours from the brink of a feared, most unwanted departure.