The Coalition and Europe – After the Honeymoon

The report is the product of a series of conferences held by the Federal Trust and the Global Policy Institute of London Metropolitan University in 2010-11, reviewing the first year of the United Kingdom Coalition government’s European policy.

Subjects covered included the differing Conservative and Liberal Democrat approaches to the Union; financial regulation and the EU Budget; European external relations; and European citizenship. The report concludes that the first year of the Coalition’s European policy has been more pragmatic and harmonious than might have been feared. It warns however that in the longer term the Coalition is storing up considerable difficulties for itself and the country by the policy of European semi-detachment that it is following.