Cameron calls for new EU agenda

The Conservatives will be "champions for real change in Europe", David Cameron has said.

In a speech in Brussels, the Conservative leader told his party's MEPs they were a "new generation" with no time for the "culture of hopelessness" which has plagued the EU.

"It's because we want to see a future for the EU and believe in a strong Europe that we want to make the EU confront its failings," he said.

Cameron was meeting with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barrosso and trade commissioner Peter Mandelson on Thursday.

He criticised economic policies within the EU, saying high trade barriers and an unreformed Common Agricultural Policy were aggravating poverty in developing countries.

And he said the fact the EU had not had its accounts signed off for 11 years in a row was "not good enough, and it's got to change".

On the environment, Cameron said the EU is set to miss the Kyoto target for cutting carbon emissions.

Despite repeated promises to make the EU the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world, he said, EU regulations since 1998 had cost business £36bn.

Cameron has only rarely given speeches on Europe, traditionally a divisive subject for his party.

He has been accused of backing down on a pledge, one of his first as leader, to take Conservative MEPs out of the centre-right European People's Party.

He said: "It is time to drive forward a new agenda in Europe - looking outwards to the world, flexible, competitive - ready to face the challenges of globalisation in the 21st century."

Appealing to the EU to "reach out with enthusiasm" to countries seeking to gain membership, he said: "The next generation of Europeans wants a continent to be proud of.

"They want Europe to be a force for good, to lead by example, to be a shining symbol of progress."