Viviane Reding Delivers 2014 Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture on 'The United Kingdom and the EU: Inevitably Drifting Apart?'

On Monday 17 February 2014 Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the EU Commission and European Union Justice Commissioner delivered the 2014 CELS Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture entitled "The United Kingdom and the EU: Inevitably Drifting Apart?" at the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge.

In a provocative lecture, Vice-President Reding examined the reasons for the United Kingdom’s recent movement away from greater European integration. She counselled that leaving the Union would damage the British economy, and leave the country without an important seat at the negotiating table. Echoing Winston Churchill’s famous 1946 speech in Zurich, she suggested that the Eurozone was destined to become the United States of Europe, of which the UK would not be part.

The Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture, sponsored by Shearman & Sterling, is an annual public lecture hosted by the Centre for European Legal Studies (CELS) in honour of Lord Mackenzie-Stuart, the first British judge to be appointed to the European Court of Justice.

This event was chaired by Roger Mosey, Master of Selwyn College. It was attended by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz and by Sir Konrad Schiemann and Sir Francis Jacobs, both formerly of the European Court of Justice. The lecture attracted significant media coverage and was featured in a number of publications, including:

• The Guardian;
• The Independent;
• BBC;
• The Telegraph;
• Reuters;

More information about this lecture, including other recorded formats, a transcript, and photographs from the event, is available from the Mackenzie-Stuart Lecture pages on the CELS website.