Should Plaid be more Eurosceptic?

In response to my post Reflections on the Euro Result James D made an interesting comment:

James D said...

I think there's another side to it: the Tories and the English Independence Party did well in a European election because of their Euroscepticism, whilst the Liberals got buried thanks to their being Eurofederalists. Plaid would do a lot better to fight to reclaim our rights from both Westminster and Brussels, rather than schizophrenically taking from one and giving to the other.

I think that James makes a fair point. Plaids enthusiasm for the EU isn't in tune with the view of the majority of Welsh voters and it does appear to be a bit hypocritical to be asking for separation from one Union which is too big and remote to consider the needs of Wales but to enthuse about full membership of a bigger even more remote union.

Of course the support for Europe is, like the support for Socialism, one of those policies adopted by the party in the mid eighties, when the party started to move away from its nationalist beginnings. In the 1975 EEC referendum Plaid Cymru was against the UK remaining in the community, Dafydd Elis was a particularly vigorous campaigner for a No vote.

Having been a supporter of the EEC in 1975 I was pleased when Plaid changed its oppositionist policy. However the policy was, at the time, one where Plaid wanted Wales to be part of a reformed EEC where economic co-operation was not dependent on Europe wide rules and regulations, but was an Europe of the Nations. A policy similar in many respects to William Hague's In Europe but not run by Europe stance. A return to such a policy would make much more sense and be more in tune with Plaid's heritage than appearing to support the creeping moves towards an European Nation State.