Europe motion for Brighton Lib Dem conference published

The motion on Europe to be debated at the forthcoming Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton has now been published. The one selected for debate is the motion put in by the Federal Policy Committee (FPC) setting out the party’s continuing pro-European stance.

The Brighton motion can be summarised as:

1. We’re still in favour of the EU
2. There should be a Parliamentary vote on the terms of negotiation before Article 50 is triggered
3. Here’s the Lib Dem minimum demands for the negotiations to count as successful
4. The British people should then get a vote in a referendum to decide whether or not the outcome of the negotiations matches what the public wants

That last point is important because of the huge, and often mutually contradictory, demands of Brexit campaigners. Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP, has talked of a post-Brexit future in which net immigration is above 100,000 in some years for example, whilst many other Brexit campaigners want a very different – and even more restrictive – approach.

The motion is open to amendments – see the end of the document for details.

(For details of the amendments taken to other motions, see Zoe O’Connell’s post.)