Today MPs in Parliament will debate and vote on our EU Referendum Bill to legislate for an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU before the end of 2017.
No institution can survive without the people’s support and the EU that will emerge from the Eurozone crisis may look very different from the EU before that crisis. Every country in the EU will have to make potentially fundamental choices about their place in Europe as a result and the future shape of Europe for decades will be determined by those choices.
That is why it is our policy to seek reform so that the EU can become more competitive and flexible for the modern age. We want powers to come back to the countries of the EU so that national parliaments, the indispensible vessels of democracy, can have a more powerful role and then, as our Bill would do, put the decision in the hands of the British people.
That is why every MP who is a true democrat can and should unite behind the EU Referendum Bill today. It is about letting the people decide.