Hague on Europe

William Hague delivered a masterful speech on “The Conservative agenda for Europe”, at Policy Exchange today.  In short, it’s the definitive statement of why Britain deserves a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, although it skips around many of the key questions. I’ve identified some of the best bits below, but the whole transcript’s well worth reading (when, that is, it becomes available on the Tory website).

First, there’s an incisive attack on the Government’s failure to call a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty:

“It is a puzzle why the most enthusiastic proponents of deeper European integration in this country are a referendum’s fiercest opponents. If this Treaty is such a good thing for Britain, if the new powers it gives the EU and the new institutions it establishes are so vital for our future, why do they not want it to have the firmest possible democratic mandate? If its benefits are so obvious, why do they fear that they would lose the argument in a referendum campaign? In the debates in the Commons we have heard ministers extolling how it will allow the EU to do more to combat crime and promote energy liberalisation and the Single Market.