Significant - The British prime minister said early on Friday morning he could not allow a "treaty within a treaty" that would undermine the UK's position in the single market.The move marked a victory for Nicolas Sarkozy, who had been pressing for an inter-governmental agreement among the 17 members of the eurozone to underpin tough new fiscal rules for the single currency. "We could not accept this," he said of Cameron's demands. The French president, who has been pressing for the formalisation of a "two-speed Europe", was pleased on Friday when the number of EU member states indicating their support for a separate treaty reached 23. Britain was joined by Sweden, which rejected euro membership in a referendum, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who had hoped to agree a revision of the Lisbon treaty, said she believed the accord would stabilize the euro. "I have always said, the 17 states of the eurogroup have to regain credibility," she said. "And I believe with today's decisions this can and will be achieved." Cameron wielded the British veto in the early hours of the morning after France succeeded in blocking a series of safeguards demanded by Britain to protect the City of London. Cameron had demanded that:
• Any transfer of power from a national regulator to an EU regulator on financial services would be subject to a veto.
• Banks should face a higher capital requirement.
• The European Banking Authority should remain in London. There were suggestions that it might be consolidated in the European Security and Markets Authority in Paris.
• The European Central Bank be rebuffed in its attempts to rule that euro-denominated transactions take place within the eurozone. The summit also agreed that: Eurozone countries will provide up to €200bn in extra resources to the International Monetary Fund to help countries in difficulty. The eurozone's two bailout funds, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), will be managed by the European Central Bank.
3 comments:
07.57 Sir Christopher Meyer, former British Ambassador to the United States and Germany, has argued in a Huffington Post blog that David Cameron is not isolated:
Since Major's demise, the British press have been deprived of the Britain-isolated story. Tony Blair finessed it by giving way when he thought that he was going to end up in a minority of one.
Now it's back with a vengeance and Pavlov's dogs are gleefully yapping. But, history rarely repeats itself and David Cameron is not a re-run of Thatcher's or Major's splendid isolation in Europe. As never before, the threat to the EU is existential; and the UK has a powerful interest in the euro's survival in one form or another.
Nor is Cameron actually isolated like his conservative predecessors. There are nine other EU countries who are not members of the Eurozone. They are Cameron's natural allies, if British diplomacy can be clever enough to enlist them.
Nicolas Sarkozy said that Britain made "unacceptable" demands for exemptions from certain financial regulations in return for joining in the "fiscal compact". Apparently, a French source also said that Cameron is "like a man who goes to a wife swapping party without his wife". Ooh la la. The Telegraph's Benedict Brogan tweets:
@PoliticsFR French source tells @Telegraph Cameron 'like man who goes to wife swapping party without his wife'. On traduit comment? #€bordel
Your point is well taken but they disagree on separate points. Ireland, as the second biggest debtor of the Eurozone (and probably biggest per population) is objecting to their low corproate tax being aligned with the rest of the Eurozone. Self-interest.
Finland and the NL are objecting to small countries being steamrollered by the big, something the Brits do not really mind and have used in the past to great effect for their own benefit starting with Thatcher and Mitterand.
The problem of balancing the needs of the small and large occupied the lions share of the USA 1787 constitutional convention. It created the Congress of the Senate (2 per state) and House (proportional) and the President. The EU has a long way to go.
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