Forget the Brussels Summit — here’s how Cameron could challenge EU power at home

Much has already been written this week about the negotiating hand that David Cameron should be playing in Brussels over the next couple of days.
 
I am fervently of the view that there is indeed a whole raft of policy areas over which he should be seeking to reclaim powers from Brussels, and they are detailed in a new paper by Dr Lee Rotherham, Terms of Endearment, which was published earlier this week by the TaxPayers’ Alliance.
 
But forget the European Council for a moment. For it is worth highlighting the things that the British Government could do immediately and unilaterally, here at home, to challenge EU power — and without recourse to Brussels whatsoever. And Lee’s paper gives the following six examples:
 
1. Commissioning a measured, independent and trustworthy cost-benefit analysis of EU membership. Such an exercise ought to consider both the concrete and abstract costs and benefits of our membership of the EU, and would both set the terms of a mandate for renegotiation and strengthen the hand of the team sent to Brussels seeking it.