Cameron: ‘Real choice’ is coming on Europe
David Cameron has further hyped his upcoming speech on EU policy, with a promise to voters that they would soon be given "real choice" on Europe.
The much-promoted speech, due to be made later this month, is expected to see the prime minister outline plans to repatriate powers from the EU and probably offer a referendum on the final agreement.
"It will demonstrate very clearly that it is the Conservative party at the next election that will be offering people a real change in terms of Europe and a real choice about that change," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
The prime minister said he would be "tough" but that Britain should still stay inside the EU.
"I don't think it's right to aim for a status like Norway or Switzerland where basically you have to obey all the rules of the single market but you don't have a say over what they are," he said.
Cameron is faced with a seemingly-impossible balancing act on the EU which the keynote speech will try to resolve.
On the one hand he must satisfy his increasingly raucous Tory backbenchers, who want to seize the opportunity of the eurozone crisis to pull out of the European project altogether.
But Cameron also faces opposition from his coalition partner Nick Clegg, who called repatriation a "false promise wrapped in a Union Jack", and EU figures themselves, who have warned that power negotiations could cause the EU to unravel.
