Shaping Our World through a Strong Europe

4.00.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 16th Sep 2008

Colin Ross at the European Parliament

This afternoon the Liberal Democrats discussed Europe. They noted that whilst the EU has achieved a great deal in the last 50 years it needs to do more to put its own house in order to focus better on its core objectives and realise its full potential.

The Liberal Democrats are committed to providing the sort of constructive engagement in Europe that is essential to protect and promote the UK's national interest, protect its citizens and further its influence in the world. The Liberal Democrats believe that the key principles which should guide Europe policy are internationalism, the rule of law, democracy and human rights and protecting the environment.

Conference in the debate welcomed proposals to reform and strengthen common policies in order to bring about real change within the European Union, through whatever institutional framework is in place, provide more accountability in budget-setting within the EU, including linking the budget-setting cycles with the political cycles of the Commission and the European Parliament and giving local and regional authorities more say in the design of regional policy.

Conference also agreed that the UK should take a more positive role in leading action at EU level to tackle climate change and ensure reliable energy supplies including increasing the EU's target for reducing carbon emissions to 30% by 2020, ensuring that EU policies play a greater role in building a low-carbon economy and promoting clean, low-carbon energy technologies, including supporting the EU target for 20% of Europe's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020 and speeding up the development of carbon capture and storage.

Conference called for the reform of both the agricultural and fisheries policy within the EU, including bringing forward the date for ending export subsidies from 2013 to 2010.