Tim Farron writes: ‘renegotiation not a game changer’

Arriving at St Pancras for the Eurostar early on Thursday morning 18 February, I found myself amongst a small gaggle of lobby journalists, all clutching tickets to the same destination - Brussels, presumably with 'open returns' with no one being sure how long the negotiations would take.

We were, of course, heading to Brussels ahead of the summit at which David Cameron would try and thrash out the last minute 'grand deal' that would allow him to campaign for Britain to stay in Europe.

The substance of the deal has been held up as the greatest political settlement of our time by his more loyal supporters and dismissed as entirely irrelevant by the usual Eurosceptic suspects in the Conservative party.

Neither styling is fair. The renegotiation is not a game changer, but it shows that our European partners are open to working together to achieve reform in Europe.

I was heading to Brussels to talk to the liberal leaders and Prime Ministers from across Europe at the ALDE Pre-Summit meeting.

The meeting was held at the Palais d'Egmont and saw 7 PMs in the ALDE and other leaders discuss Britain's place in Europe, the refugee crisis and the situation in Poland where there has been an erosion of the independence of the judiciary and media.

It was a productive session with everyone agreed that Britain was stronger in Europe, and Europe was stronger with Britain in it. I encouraged them to support the UK renegotiation so the campaign to keep Britain in Europe can begin.

The reality is this referendum is not going to be fought or won on the narrow reforms that Cameron has focused on. Instead the referendum will focus on the big issues that are at the heart of our European membership- how we are wealthier and more prosperous, safer, and more able to tackle big issues like climate change by staying in Europe.

I also took the opportunity to present a petition at the European Parliament with Catherine Bearder MEP calling on the UK Government to apply for European funding to help fund flood repairs in the areas decimated by flooding over Christmas. The Government had stubbornly refused to apply for this money - a minimum of £125m - so I was delighted to see this week that the pressure we had applied hadpaid off with a last minute application being submitted by the Government.

After a media round to set out what we had discussed and hoped to see agreed, it was back to Brussels station for the train to Cologne, where I was going to see how the city was playing their part in helping tackle the refugee crisis.