§ Q6. Mr. Clifton-BrownTo ask the Prime Minister when he next plans to visit Cirencester and Tewkesbury. [23581]
§ The Prime MinisterI have no immediate plans to do so.
§ Mr. Clifton-BrownIf my right hon. Friend were to visit my constituency, he would discover that a large majority of people would prefer a Europe of nation states rather than a European super-state. Will he therefore undertake, at the intergovernmental conference next year, to resist vigorously giving up our opt-outs and the restriction of our veto, which both the President of the European Commission and the Labour party would like to give up?
§ The Prime MinisterI can give my hon. Friend that assurance. It is for national Governments, not the European Commission, to take decisions on Europe's 470 future at the intergovernmental conference. We will certainly maintain the national veto and we will certainly not accept any attempt to end the opt-outs that I negotiated in the Maastricht treaty.
I look to see the European Union succeed, but on the basis of close co-operation between independent sovereign states. I do not believe that, in the long term, the European Union could or would succeed on any other basis. I believe that the proposition for a substantial amount of further centralisation in Europe would do great damage to Europe. It would split it asunder and it should be resisted.