Or does it want to build an alternative relationship model as European MP Daniel Hannan argues?

FORBES: Exclusive :United Kingdom won't leave Europe

"You can't swim for ever against the current of public opinion", argues Daniel Hannan.

BBC: If the UK left the EU what would the consequences be?

Daniel Hannan MEP said he had stepped down as Conservative legal affairs spokesman in the European Parliament, to concentrate on campaigning for a referendum on Europe.

BBC: French minister bids to calm row

And Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, who represents South East England, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme also said it illustrated the problem with state funding of political parties.

BBC: BNP rejects calls to curb its EU money as 'totalitarianism'

Some British eurosceptics, including Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, have argued that the UK should be like Norway, outside the EU, but according to this report Norway is both "outside and inside" the EU and just "one or two steps behind".

BBC: Non-EU Norway 'almost as integrated in union as UK'