Today is the day in which David Cameron will deliver the much anticipated speech on the controversy surrounding the EU and the UK’s bowing out or participation within it.  The speech had originally been planned for delivery in Amsterdam but will occur in London.  The expectation is that the Prime Minister will be offering a vote within the next five years on whether to stay in the EU with warnings of much needed new terms.

There will be many critics according to experts that have long studied the pros and cons of the situation.  David Cameron will be ready for such critics assure his aides.  He is expected to assure that Britain should stay in the EU but that the final decision will be left up to voters.  The ability to vote for such a referendum will end a long argument that has often led to strong splits among political parties as well as political allies.

Promising a referendum, Mr. Cameron will say, “The next Conservative Manifesto in 2015 will ask for a mandate from the British people for a Conservative Government to negotiate a new settlement with our European partners in the next Parliament.

“And when we have negotiated that new settlement, we will give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice to stay in the EU on these new terms; or come out altogether. It will be an in-out referendum.”

The Prime Minister will remark that there is a need for the EU to change and become more “flexible, adaptable and open" for the UK to remain.

He will add, “If we don’t address these challenges, the danger is that Europe will fail and the British people will drift towards the exit.

“I do not want that to happen. I want the European Union to be a success. And I want a relationship between Britain and the EU that keeps us in it.”

In defense of waiting for the referendum rather than calling for one now, he will remark, “Some argue that the solution is therefore to hold a straight in-out referendum now. I understand the impatience of wanting to make that choice immediately.

“But I don’t believe that to make a decision at this moment is the right way forward, either for Britain or for Europe as a whole. A vote today between the status quo and leaving would be an entirely false choice.

“It is wrong to ask people whether to stay or go before we have had a chance to put the relationship right.”

This is a critical time for the speech on the EU for the Prime Minister with the warning of a possible triple dip recession, a weak but possible rebounding housing market, and low consumer confidence in the economy and near future.