Euro crisis an 'opportunity'
The current turmoil in Europe is an opportunity for the UK to "refashion" its relationship with Brussels, David Cameron said on Monday.
In a speech in London, the prime minister argued powers should "ebb back" from Brussels to Westminster as part of "fundamental" future reform.
"Powers should ebb back instead of flow away and for the European Union should focus on what really matters to underpin prosperity, stability and growth.
"That is the kind of fundamental reform I yearn for," said Cameron.
But he insisted that the UK's future remains within the EU, not outside it.
The PM is under pressure from many of his MPs to renegotiate UK membership.
Some Conservatives want to go further and leave the EU altogether.
The prime minister's authority was directly challenged last month when 81 Tory MPs defied the leadership and voted for a referendum on the UK's continued place in the EU.
Cameron used a major foreign policy speech in the City of London to argue that the eurozone financial crisis has challenged longstanding assumptions about how the EU should evolve and its 27 members must now ask what kind of union they want in the future.
Claiming that the EU is too often seen as an "abstract end in itself" and detached from economic reality, he outlined his vision for a more "outward looking", "flexible" and "diverse" union which puts advancing its citizens living standards above all else.
In his speech, he also warned that Europe is "slipping behind" other economic powers and warned that unless it becomes more competitive, it will remain a "continent in trouble".
Comments