The U.K.'s veto of a European Union-wide solution to the region's problems could leave Britain isolated from the Continent and triggered a fresh round of questions about its historically awkward relationship with Europe.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday that he had blocked the creation of a new EU treaty because it didn't provide the safeguards it wanted on the single market and other key interests.
"Without those safeguards it is better not to have a [EU] treaty within a treaty but to have those countries make those arrangements separately," he said following discussions with EU leaders that lasted from dinner on Thursday through to Friday morning. "What is on offer isn't in Britain's interests so I didn't agree to it."
Mr. Cameron's move was well received by euro-skeptic members of his own Conservative Party, many of who had been putting pressure on the Prime Minister threatening rebellion.
"This is a good day for a Britain and a good day for David Cameron," said Douglas Carswell, a Conservative lawmaker who has been among the most vocal of euro-skeptic critics.
But some observers asked whether Mr. Cameron's move will benefit Britain. The move could relegate the country to the periphery of its biggest trading partner and a political bloc that rules ever greater swaths of British life, from immigration to business regulation.
Meanwhile, euro-skeptic Tories and much of the public are unlikely to be satisfied with Friday's conclusion and could demand a referendum on aspects of Britain's relationship with the EU. "The momentum is now the other way, this is not the final deal it is the beginning of the process of decoupling," said Mr. Carswell.
The move is also likely to create tensions with the Conservative Party's coalition government partners, the pro-European Liberal Democrats.
"There is no doubt no doubt in my mind our future is in Europe and therefore we have to make sure we are not isolated," said Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat government minister.
Mr. Cameron, who had vowed to fight for the U.K.'s interests and its financial sector ahead of the meeting, said it wasn't easy to go against the majority view in the overnight talks and acknowledged that there were risks in other countries forming a separate agreement within the EU.
The British leader also appeared to suggest that the U.K. could cause further headaches for the eurozone, saying that British voices must be heard given the new treaty bloc will be using the bureaucracy of the EU.
"We will insist the EU institutions, the court, the Commission, that they work for all 27 nations of the European Union. Indeed those institutions are established by the treaty and that treaty is still protected," he said.
Mr. Cameron said the U.K.'s interests within the EU, such as free trade and having a say over the rules that govern how it sells its goods and services, remain protected.
"So we will not be presenting this new treaty when it's agreed to our parliament—it will not involve Britain," he said.
Mr. Cameron said progress had been made on strengthening the euro-zone's firewall against contagion and its fiscal rules, but more work was needed on competitiveness in the currency area.
Mr. Cameron acknowledged the differences between the countries that had the euro and those that didn't had created tensions within the EU. But the U.K. should be relaxed about the apparent split in the EU as there had always been separate groups, he said.
"We're never going to give up the sort of sovereignty these countries are having to give up in order to enter a fiscal union, so in some ways the fact they are going to do this in a separate treaty without actually distorting the European Union treaty itself in many ways, given we couldn't get those safeguards, perhaps it's a better outcome," he said.
read more: Olympus Wealth Management
No comments:
Post a Comment