LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday promised Britons a decisive referendum within five years on membership in the European Union - provided he wins the next election.
“It is time for the British people to have their say. It is time to settle this European question in British politics,” he told an audience in London, raising fears in capitals as distant as Washington that a ballot could lead to Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.
His pledge drew a sharp response from European leaders who accused Cameron, in the words of a senior German politician, of trying to “cherrypick” the economic benefits of EU membership without subscribing to the broader European project. Politicians in France and Germany said Britain could not have “Europe a la carte.”
The United States has been unusually public in its insistence that Britain, a close ally, stay in the union, fearing its departure would heighten centrifugal forces that would weaken Europe as a diplomatic, military and financial partner.
President Barack Obama recently told Cameron by telephone that “the United States values a strong U.K. in a strong European Union, which makes critical contributions to peace, prosperity and security in Europe and around the world,” a spokesman said.
Cameron coupled his promise of a referendum with an impassioned defense of continued membership in a more streamlined and competitive EU, built around its core single market underpinning the body’s internal trade. But he acknowledged the risks, saying any exit from the European Union “would be a one-way ticket.”
“I know there will be those who say the vision I have outlined will be impossible to achieve. That there is no way our partners will cooperate. That the British people have set themselves on a path to inevitable exit. And that if we aren’t comfortable being in the EU after 40 years, we never will be,” he said. “But I refuse to take such a defeatist attitude - either for Britain or for Europe.
“And when the referendum comes,” he said, “I will campaign for it with all my heart and soul.”
The speech reflected Cameron’s belief that by wresting some powers back from the European Union, he can win the support of a British public that has long been ambivalent - or actively hostile - toward the idea of European integration.
“We have the character of an island nation - independent, forthright, passionate in defense of our sovereignty,” he said. “We can no more change this sensibility than drain the English Channel.”
The proposed referendum is depicted by some in the U.K. as a gamble by Cameron, who may be calculating that Europeans value British membership so highly that they will accommodate his wishes for change.
On the other hand, if the British chose to leave the union, they would be casting aside an engagement that has been a fundamental part of British policy for four decades. A British exit would also mean the departure of a major economic and banking power, placing new obstacles between British businesses and their main trading partners across the English Channel.
In his speech, Cameron said, “There is no doubt that we are more powerful in Washington, in Beijing, in Delhi because we are a powerful player in the European Union.”
Cameron initially had planned to deliver the address Friday in the Netherlands but postponed it because of the hostage crisis in Algeria.
He ruled out an immediate ballot, saying that the turmoil within the 17-nation zone that uses the euro currency, of which Britain is not a member, meant that the broader EU was heading for sweeping changes that his government wanted to influence.
A referendum before those changes are made, he said, would present an “entirely false choice.” Cameron said he would seek a mandate at the 2015 election for a Conservative government to negotiate a new relationship with the EU. Information for this article was contributed by Steven Erlanger, Scott Sayare and Victor Homola of The New York Times.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/24/2013