William Hague - UK will not give up more national sovereignty

William Hague (right) with Philip Hammond in Warsaw: photo - PAP/Grzegorz Jakobowski

After a meeting with Poland’s foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, Hague said that London will not agree to any changes that would result in limiting the sovereignty of national governments.

“The government in the UK is clear, as you know, that we will not agree to any further transfer of power or competence from the national level to the EU,” Hague told reporters.

“If this were to be proposed by any government then there would have to be a referendum in the UK. But we're not contemplating any such transfer of power or competence.”

Hague added that the British government is against creating a banking union as proposed by European Commission president Jose Manuel Barosso, who in his annual State of the Union address in Strasbourg last week called for the creation of "federation of nation states”.

William Hague agreed with Polish foreign minister Sikorski during their talks that the most pressing tasks that Europe is currently facing are the “creation of new jobs, developing trade and economic growth”.

Belarus

UK foreign secretary Hague also urged Belarus to conduct Sunday's parliamentary election in a free and fair manner and to release political detainees. Hague said the country would be under careful watch during Sunday's parliamentary vote.

“On Belarus we call once more for the release and rehabilitation of political detainees. And we hope this weekend's elections there will be conducted to international standards with no repeat of violence against peaceful protesters,” he said.

Sunday's election will see 294 MPs elected to the country's 110-member lower house of parliament.

The opposition is largely boycotting the elections.

While in Poland's capital Hague was accompanied by UK secretary of defense Philip Hammond who held talks with his Polish opposite number Tomasz Siemoniak.

On Tuesday the 11 EU Foreign Ministers making up the "Reflection Group" published a report after their final meeting in the Polish capital which proposed greater political integration of the 27-nation bloc.

Among the suggested ideas were super-qualified majority voting, an elected president of the commission and a proposed single European army. The group is composed, among others, of the Polish, German and French Foreign Ministers. Great Britain is not represented there. (di/pg)

source: IAR