British disillusionment with the European Union is the “deepest it has ever been”, William Hague warned yesterday.
The Foreign Secretary told a foreign policy forum that UK voters feel the EU is something that is “done to them” with Brussels sucking up powers from national governments.
Mr Hague told European leaders they must allow powers to “flow back” as well as letting states have different levels of membership.
In a speech at Berlin’s Körber Foundation, Mr Hague said: “This coalition government is committed to Britain playing a leading role in the EU, but public disillusionment with the EU in Britain is the deepest it has ever been.
“People feel that in too many ways the EU is something that is done to them, not something over which they have a say.
“The way Lisbon was ratified without any consultation of the voters has played a part in that. People feel the EU is a one-way process, a great machine that sucks up decision-making from national parliaments until everything is decided by the EU. That needs to change.
“It is obviously in Britain’s interests for the EU to succeed in the tasks I have described and for Britain to play a leading role in it.
“The way forward for the EU is not more centralisation and uniformity, but of flexibility and variable geometry, that allows differing degrees of integration, done in ways that do not disadvantage those that do not wish to participate in everything, and preserves the things we all value.”