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Britain, Ireland, and Europe

British Prime Minister David Cameron is increasingly beholden to Conservative backbenchers who want to pull the UK out of the EU. On May 22, former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband delivered the Irish Business and Employers Confederation Annual Lecture, in which he defended continued EU membership.

Editor’s Note: The following is an edited version of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation Annual Lecture, delivered in Dublin on May 22, 2013

There are five themes running through my remarks.

First, deeply embedded trends demonstrate that, while the European Union is risky in the short term, it will be strong in the medium and long terms. The EU has a powerful logic and purpose in the twenty-first century.

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