BRITISH PRIME minister David Cameron said the UK would remain a full player in the European Union, despite his decision to veto a new EU treaty for all 27 states at last Friday’s summit.
Rejecting charges that there was now a two-tier European Union, Mr Cameron told the House of Commons that the creation of the euro and the Schengen free travel area showed that the EU could operate at different levels.
“I do not believe there is a binary choice for Britain: that we can either sacrifice the national interest on issue after issue or lose our influence at the heart of Europe’s decision-making processes,” he told the House of Commons.
“I am absolutely clear that it is possible both to be a full, committed and influential member of the European Union and to stay out of arrangements where we cannot protect our interests,” he went on, though the absence of deputy prime minister Nick Clegg for his speech caused surprise.
Repeatedly, Mr Cameron challenged Labour leader Ed Miliband to declare whether he would have used the veto last week, while Tory MPs jeered when one revealed that Mr Miliband’s aides were briefing the press that he would have done so.
Conscious, perhaps, that he could be portrayed as being too close to the City of London, Mr Cameron pointed out that £1 in every £9 in tax comes from financial services, while it supports 100,000 jobs in Birmingham and 150,000 in Scotland.
Defending his decision to stay away for Mr Cameron’s speech, Mr Clegg said his presence would have been a distraction.
One Tory backbencher described the Liberal Democrats as “lick-spittles”, while another MP, Nadine Dorries, said “the most cowardly and negative attacks” on Mr Cameron had not “come from Labour but from the Liberal Democrats”.
Defending his stand, Mr Cameron said: “We went seeking a deal at 27 and I responded to the German and French proposal for treaty change in good faith, genuinely looking to reach an agreement at the level of the whole European Union, with the necessary safeguards for Britain.
“Those safeguards – on the single market and on financial services – were modest, reasonable and relevant. We were not trying to create an unfair advantage for Britain,” he told MPs.
Mr Cameron has significantly amended the position he took during Friday’s talks when he initially said he would not allow EU institutions such as the European Commission and the European Court of Justice to be used by the other 26 states.
Yesterday, however, he said he was prepared to “discuss” the issue in coming weeks and months, leaving open the possibility that the UK could adopt a half-way position in the negotiations due to finish by March.
Warning that the talks would not be easy, Mr Cameron said the new treaty would pass “unprecedented powers” from euro zone states and some countries would have their budgets “rewritten for them” by the most powerful EU states.
Mr Miliband, however, was scathing about Mr Cameron’s negotiating skills: “Many people feared an outcome of 17 countries going it alone. Few could have anticipated the diplomatic disaster of 26 going ahead and one country – Britain – being left behind.”