EU Referendum questions: The UK's influence in the EU

Cambridge Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) Podcast

Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge

Society & Culture, Education, Business

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🗓️ 31 May 2016

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

In this ongoing series of short interviews, academics from the University of Cambridge and beyond shed light on the key issues to be considered in the run up to the upcoming referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union.

This recording features Professor Kenneth Armstrong, Professor of European Law and Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS), considering what influence the UK currently exerts in the operation of the European Union, and how that position might change in the light of the referendum on 23rd June.

This series has been created by the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS). For more information visit http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/

Transcript

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0:00.0	So I'm here today with Professor Kenneth Armstrong, who is the Director of the Centre for European Legal Studies,
0:15.0	and we're going to be talking about the UK's influence within the EU.
0:20.0	So to start with, in what ways does the UK have influence within the EU. So to start with, in what ways does the UK have influence
0:23.6	within the EU?
0:24.6	The UK has influence in a number of ways. Firstly, we of course as UK citizens elect members of
0:33.6	the European Parliament who are there to represent the interests of UK citizens.
0:39.4	And our national government is represented directly into two very important EU institutions.
0:44.9	One is the European Council, that is those big meetings of Prime Minister, presidents and heads
0:50.2	of state. And also on the more day-to-day basis in what is known as the Council of Ministers
0:55.1	and the Council of Ministers is the body that brings together the representatives of national
0:59.9	governments to, in coordination with the European Parliament, adopt EU legislation.
1:05.7	The UK also has much more indirect ways of influence through its civil servants, its personnel,
1:13.6	who are involved in much of the day-to-day work of implementing and applying EU law
1:19.6	in areas like environmental rules, health and safety standards.
1:23.6	And the expertise that these civil servants bring is very important in the development
1:29.8	of EU rulemaking.
1:30.8	There's this perception in the media that the UK is being governed by a bunch of faceless
1:36.1	bureaucrats in Brussels who are not UK people.
1:40.0	What do you think might be driving that perception?
1:43.1	There's two sides to that I think.
1:45.0	One is there's a perception that is the European Commission that adopts EU legislation.
1:50.0	The European Commission has an important role in drafting proposals that it sends to the European Parliament and to the Council of Ministers.
	...

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