British PM promises referendum on staying in EU by 2017

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Jan. 23 that he would offer British citizens a vote on whether to leave the European Union by the end of 2017 if his party wins the next election, a move that has already triggered alarm among member states.

Cameron acknowledged that public disillusionment with the EU was “at an all-time high,” using a long-awaited speech in London to say that the terms of Britain’s membership in the bloc should be revised and the country’s citizens should have a say.

Cameron proposed that his Conservative Party renegotiate the U.K.’s relationship with the European Union if it wins the next general election, expected in 2015.

Cameron insisted that a “one size fits all” approach to the 27-nation EU was misguided. Britain has always had a fraught relationship with the bloc. It benefits from the single market, but is among 10 of the EU countries not to use the euro.

“Let us not be misled by the fallacy that a deep and workable single market requires everything to be harmonized, to hanker after some unattainable and infinitely level playing field,” he said. “Countries are different. They make different choices. We cannot harmonize everything.”

Even as he raised the specter of a referendum, Cameron reiterated his view that Britain should stay in the EU.