The Fresh Start Project or Fresh Start Group, also known as EU Fresh Start, is a moderate

eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...

pressure group formed in the UK to examine the options for a new UK- EU relationship. It should not be confused with a previous group, also called Fresh Start, of anti-European MPs during the premiership of

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Hunting ...

in the 1990s.

Foundation and aims

The Fresh Start Project was formed In September 2011 by three UK

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

MPs,

Andrea Leadsom Dame Andrea Jacqueline Leadsom (; ' Salmon; born 13 May 1963) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Northamptonshire since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Secretary of State for Environ ...

Chris Heaton-Harris Christopher Heaton-Harris (born 28 November 1967) is an English politician who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 6 September 2022. Early life and education Born on 28 November 1967, Heaton-Harris attended the Tiffin ...

and

George Eustice Charles George Eustice (born 28 September 1971) is a British politician and former public relations executive who held office as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs between 2020 and 2022. A member of the Conservative P ...

. Its expressed aims are to examine the options for a new UK-EU relationship, set out what this new relationship could look like, establish a process for achieving change and build political support to make it happen.

Research papers

On 10 July 2012 the Fresh Start Group released a research paper, "Options for Change", which according to

the Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

, called for “''reducing the overall size of the EU budget, overhauling the

Common Agricultural Policy The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the agricultural policy of the European Union. It implements a system of agricultural subsidies and other programmes. It was introduced in 1962 and has since then undergone several changes to reduce th ...

to which the UK contributes about £1bn a year and repatriating structural funds''.” It was accompanied by "Manifesto for Change" based on the research paper, calling for five significant revisions to the

EU Treaties The Treaties of the European Union are a set of international treaties between the European Union (EU) member states which sets out the EU's constitutional basis. They establish the various EU institutions together with their remit, procedure ...

: # An "emergency brake" for any Member State regarding future EU legislation that affects financial services. # The EU should repatriate competence in the area of social and employment law to Member States. Failing that, an opt-out for the UK from existing EU social and employment law, and an "emergency brake" for any Member State regarding future EU legislation that affects this area. # An opt-out for the UK from all existing EU policing and criminal justice measures not already covered by the Lisbon Treaty block opt-out. # A new legal safeguard for the single market to ensure that there is no discrimination against non-Eurozone member interests. # The abolition of the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions. It also called for reforms within the scope of the existing Treaties. Both documents contained forewords by

William Hague William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conq ...

, then UK

Foreign Secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

. Other research papers produced by the Fresh Start Project include papers on the impact of the EU on microbusinesses, on the effect of the

Working Time Directive Working Time Directive''2003/88/ECis a European Union law Directive (European Union), Directive and a key part of European labour law. It gives EU workers the right to: *at least 28 days (four weeks) in paid holidays each year, *rest breaks of ...

on the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

and on the cross-border market in services.

Pan-European Conference for EU Reform

The Fresh Start Project and the think tank

Open Europe Open Europe was a British centre-right eurosceptic policy think tank with offices in London and Brussels, merging with the Policy Exchange think tank in 2020. Its stated mission was to "conduct rigorous analysis and produce recommendat ...

co-hosted the Pan-European Conference for EU Reform in January 2014. The two-day event brought together 300 delegates from over 30 countries, including eight Ministers, a European Commissioner, former heads of state, politicians and business-leaders. The conference was opened by the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer

George Osborne George Gideon Oliver Osborne (born Gideon Oliver Osborne; 23 May 1971) is a former British politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the ...

delivering his first set-piece speech on Europe as Chancellor, and marking the first major speech on Europe by a senior UK Conservative minister since

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

's 'Bloomberg' speech in January 2013. Additional speakers included Maria Damanaki the European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs;

Paschal Donohoe Paschal Donohoe (born 19 September 1974) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who has served as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform since December 2022 and President of the Eurogroup since July 2020. He has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for the ...

, Irish Minister for European Affairs;

Rachida Dati Rachida Dati (; ar, رشيدة داتي, link=no; born 27 November 1965) is a French politician who served as Member of the European Parliament, representing Île-de-France. Prior to her election, she held the cabinet post of Keeper of the Sea ...

, a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Commu ...

, the Mayor of the

7th arrondissement of Paris The 7th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''le septième''. The arrondissement, called Palais-Bourbon in a r ...

and Deputy President of the French

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Soci ...

(UMP) Party;

Frits Bolkestein Frederik "Frits" Bolkestein (; born 4 April 1933) is a retired Dutch politician and businessman who served as Leader of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) from 1990 to 1998 and European Commissioner for Internal Market from 199 ...

, Former

European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services The Commissioner for Internal Market is a member of the European Commission. The post is currently held by Commissioner Thierry Breton. Responsibilities The portfolio concerns the development of the 480-million-strong European single market, p ...

;

Peter Norman Peter George Norman (15 June 1942 – 3 October 2006) was an Australian track athlete. He won the silver medal in the 200 metres at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, with a time of 20.06 seconds. This remains an Oceanian record. H ...

, Swedish Minister for Financial Markets; and Klaus-Peter Willsch, a German CDU Politician and member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...

. Dr Imke Henkel of German weekly ''

Focus Focus, or its plural form foci may refer to: Arts * Focus or Focus Festival, former name of the Adelaide Fringe arts festival in South Australia Film *''Focus'', a 1962 TV film starring James Whitmore * ''Focus'' (2001 film), a 2001 film based ...

'' labelled the conference "potentially historic" by "leading towards a constructive British Europe policy, which provides the important impetus towards the necessary reforms of the European Community”. Writing in the ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph'', also published by the Telegraph ...

'',

Iain Martin Iain James Martin (born 2 October 1971) is a Scottish political commentator, author and public speaker. He writes a weekly column for ''The Times'' and is co-founder, editor and publisher of ''Reaction.life, Reaction'' - a news site providing a ...

called it a “a hugely uplifting gathering”, which “would simply not have taken place before the

euro crisis The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone membe ...

almost brought about the collapse of the

single currency A currency union (also known as monetary union) is an intergovernmental agreement that involves two or more states sharing the same currency. These states may not necessarily have any further integration (such as an economic and monetary union, ...

”.

Membership and politics

The Fresh Start Group had 100 members among Conservative MPs in January 2014. It is regarded as being on the moderate wing of Conservative euroscepticism, and criticised the 95 Conservative MPs who signed a letter attacking

's European policies.

, leader of the Fresh Start Group, had to step down from it when she became a Treasury minister in April 2014.

References

{{UK Conservative Party Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom Organisations associated with the Conservative Party (UK) British political websites