Caroline Lucas makes case for staying in Europe despite Greece

Caroline Lucas has contributed to the debate reported below LINK where iIsaid that some Greens were looking critically at our 3 Yeses Policy (Yes to Referendum, Yes to Refor, Yes to staying in Europe).

This is part of what she had to say:

The EU is far from perfect, but turning our backs on it is a risky strategy. Profoundly re-imagining what a reformed EU might look like shouldn’t just be left to David Cameron. We should be building a progressive case for Britain’s membership of a radically reformed union that works better for all of us. Completely reappraising the values and end goals that lie at the heart of the European Union.

With the European council made up of ministers from each member state, it often simply reflects the prevailing currents in European politics. The imposition of austerity in Greece – forcing a population to pay the price for a crisis they didn’t cause – is simply an extension of an economic logic that spans our continent.

It’s easy to blame the EU when free-market economics tramples across our continent’s welfare states, but it’s governments like our own who have overseen the EU becoming a byword for greater liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation. The left lost the last election in Britain – giving Tories a seat at the top table in Europe. Perhaps we’d be better off reflecting on our own failings to successfully inspire hope and unity, rather than kicking out at the EU.

The full article is HERE


Green Party policy of course remains decided by Conference, rather then the leader or our single MP (something the media sometimes find hard to grasp) and it is essential that a discussion happens at Conference in September.

A vital aspect will be the question of where we will stand, if as seems likely, that any 'reforms' that Cameron negotiates will undermine the positive social aspects of the EU that the Green Party supports.