EU Too Bloated, Needs Reform - UK Foreign Secretary Hammond

The EU needs reforms as it's too bloated and too bureaucratic.

LONDON (Sputnik) — The European Union needs a reform badly as it is getting too bureaucratic and intrusive, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Sunday.

"The EU is seriously in need of reform. It’s too big, too bloated and too bureaucratic. It interferes too much in our daily lives. It has been on the wrong track for decades and it needs to change," Hammond said in his speech to the Conservative party conference in Manchester.

Earlier in October, the foreign secretary said that while the United Kingdom would most likely "survive" outside the European Union, it would be "economically damaging."

British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union by the end of 2017. Ahead of the vote, Cameron is seeking to revise the terms of UK’s EU membership, including greater autonomy in defining national immigration policy.

A YouGov poll released earlier this week said that some 40 percent of Britons supported exiting the European Union, against 38 percent who would vote to stay in the bloc. According to the poll, the number of Brexit supporters has reached its highest point since November 2014.