Free Republic

Britain should cease to be a full member of the European Union under a new deal that would focus on trade, according to senior Brussels politicians. An umbrella group of 20 organizations campaigning for a federal Europe suggested Britain should be offered “associate membership” of the EU to prevent the country leaving altogether.David Cameron is seen as the “continual impediment” to a closer integration of eurozone states, according to the Union of European Federalists. The plan would see the UK lose all its MEPs, its commissioner in Brussels and its right to veto decisions in the European Council, but remain...

Ideas kicking around in a reflection group of select EU foreign ministers include merging the roles of the EU Council and European Commission presidents. A senior EU source told this website following a meeting of the club in the Val Duchesse stately home in Brussels on Thursday (19 April) that the new supremo would have more power than either Herman Van Rompuy or Jose Manuel Barroso do today but also more "democratic legitimacy" because he or she would be elected by MEPs. In other reforms, the new figure would "streamline" the European Commission into a two-tier structure.Every EU country would...