More than 80 members of the European Movement UK attended the Annual General Meeting in Birmingham on Saturday 12 September.

Keynote speaker, and president of the European Movement, Rt Hon Charles Kennedy MP, called for a clearer and more positive tone about Europe.  He called for an end to the “conspiracy of silence” on the issue in British politics.  Looking ahead to the prospect of televised debates between the party leaders, he said:

“If there are to be such debates, and it is looking more likely now than in the past, we’ve got a real task to do, to make sure that the European issue feature prominently in those debates.  Put party leaders on the spot to make them reveal their hand on the European issue.”

Richard Laming, secretary of the European Movement, opened the meeting with an analysis of the European election results that revealed that:

–    there was a small electoral swing from left to right
–    there was a swing from large parties to small parties
–    overall turnout declined yet again

You can read the full analysis at http://www.euromove.org.uk/fileadmin/files_euromove/downloads/090912_The_results_of_the_European_elections_-_text.pdf

The results of the annual elections to the National Council were announced: European Movement chairman Peter Luff topped the poll with 28 per cent of the first preference votes.  As many as four of the 12 elected places are filled by former members of the Executive Bureau of JEF, showing the importance of an active youth section to the health of the European Movement overall.

The political debate at the AGM adopted a resolution reaffirming the support of the European Movement for British entry into the euro and the Schengen system, and rejected a resolution proposing that the EU should be funded by a Tobin tax.