Osborne On Trip To Drum Up EU Reform Support

Chancellor George Osborne will take the Government's campaign for reform of the European Union to Scandinavia today, hoping to drum up support from fellow non-euro EU countries.

During meetings with Sweden's prime minister Stefan Lofven and Denmark's premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen, as well as foreign and finance ministers, he will warn that reform is key to the future of the EU.

Mr Osborne will also argue that a wave of public support change across Europe makes it the right time to act.

David Cameron has promised to renegotiate the UK's relationship with the EU ahead of an in/out referendum and talks have begun between British officials and counterparts in Brussels.

The Prime Minister wants any deal to ensure national parliaments retain power and stop welfare incentives from attracting people to the country from across Europe.

During his trip, Mr Osborne will focus on protecting the integrity of the EU's single market and the rights of non-euro nations as the 19 countries that use the euro press on with closer economic integration, the British Treasury said in a statement.

Mr Osborne will say: "This Government has been given a very clear mandate to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the rest of the EU and to reform the EU so it works for all its citizens. We are determined to deliver a new settlement for Europe that works for everyone within it.

"The results of our efforts will be put to the British people in a referendum and they will decide.

"As part of that, our process of renegotiation must include engaging actively with our key partners in Europe and that's why today's meetings in Finland, Sweden and Denmark are so important."

Britain, which joined the EU in 1973, has traditionally seen Denmark and Sweden as allies within the bloc because they have tended to share its more sceptical approach towards closer European integration.