Periodically, Europe returns to the top of the political agenda. Today, as EU civil servants grapple with issues surrounding the euro and debt, there is a parliamentary debate in the House of Commons on Europe, forced on David Cameron by his own political innovation, the petition system. The last public vote on the EU was in 1975, so two generations of UK voters have grown up feeling a democratic deficit in not being able to influence a growing dynamic to centralise more power in Brussels. Having worked there, I am constantly asked for my views on a possible withdrawal. I always remember the words of a former French colleague, who was horrified at such a prospect. The key British contribution to the EU, according to him, was to moderate with common sense some of the wilder aspirations of EU civil servants. In the debates over the euro and member state debt, it is increasingly clear that the Franco-German machine is again at the fore. The results of tonight's vote on the debate are already known, but the European 'issue' will not go away. Perhaps lobbyists should regard Paris and Berlin as new targets, rather than Brussels?
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