Mr Major’s Comments on the Majorca EU Summit – 23 September 1995

Below is the text of Mr Major’s comments on the Majorca EU Summit, made in an interview on 23rd September 1995.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if his view on the future of the European Union went down well with other EU leaders].

PRIME MINISTER:

I think it went down extremely well. The point that I was making to colleagues was that the European Union is changing. Nothing is going to stop some of that change, it is growing. It was 6 members at one stage, it is now 15; within a decade or so it is going to be 27. That means there are going to be changes in the European Union itself, inevitably so.

No-one supposes that every member of the European Union can move towards a single currency. If they do not, then we need to consider what that means with some members within a single currency if that happens and other members outside it.

QUESTION:

[Mr Major was asked if other EU countries understood Mr Major’s political constraints that a Conservative leader could not join the single currency].

PRIME MINISTER:

You make these assertions but those are matters that lie some years ahead. What we have been discussing here is how we actually proceed from the present circumstances and the point that I was making to my European partners is that there are many things that need examining before decisions should be taken and the examination of those matters simply hasn’t begun. What is to be the relationship between the inner core and the outer core?