THE process of renegotiating the UK's relationship with Brussels has not yet started, but this week's visit of German chancellor Angela Merkel will form part of the effort to reform the European Union, William Hague has said.
The Foreign Secretary said Germany was the "most important partner" on EU reform because of its economic strength and key role in the eurozone.
Mrs Merkel will address both Houses of Parliament on Thursday and David Cameron is expected to raise the issue of overhauling the EU's immigration rules.
Mr Hague said: "She knows, and I believe she understands, what our Prime Minister David Cameron has been putting forward, that this is the age of flexibility, accountability and competitiveness.
"So we will be discussing the ideas that we have in common and, as you know, it's our intention after the next general election to improve Britain's relationship with the European Union, to renegotiate the relationship between Britain and the EU."
European trade commissioner Karel de Gucht said it would be a "big mistake" for the UK to leave the EU.
Regarding the prospect of a major EU-US trade deal, he said: "This kind of trade deal, I am pretty sure about it, you can only negotiate them between big blocs."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article