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The pre-eminent issue in British European policy since the general elections returned a Conservative majority government in May 2015 is the 'in-or-out' referendum on Britain's European Union membership which will take place before the end of 2017. David Cameron had committed to such a referendum in January 2013, primarily for intraparty and electoral reasons. On the European level, Cameron demands European reforms and further special arrangements for the United Kingdom which would allow him to make the case for staying in the European Union at the time of the referendum. However, the European bargaining position of the British government to achieve its objectives is relatively weak. While Cameron's referendum pledge has so far paid off in the domestic arena, the outcomes of the European negotiations and the British referendum are still open. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European sovereign debt crisis is widely perceived by the German public as a dangerous threat and has great potential for domestic political mobilisation. The German Federal Government, therefore, faces particular pressures to explain and justify its crisis policy in the public arena. An important instrument for this purpose is the speeches of government representatives in the German Bundestag, which can be understood as a strategic discourse in order to affect the framing of government policy in the broader public debate. Against this background, this article examines the parliamentary discourse about the Euro zone crisis of the CDU/CSU-FDP coalition government between 2009 and 2012. The analysis points to five basic lines of argument, which speak to the attempt of the Federal Government to maintain sufficient domestic leeway to pursue its preferred policy in the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]