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Re: EUEUEUEUEU becomes "hostile" to Britain after treaty veto

Posted by Olog-hai on Mon Dec 12 13:03:16 2011, in response to EUEUEUEUEU Olog, posted by RockParkMan on Sat Nov 12 14:58:17 2011.

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EU treaty: Britain now faces a Europe that is becoming hostile

By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels
6:27PM GMT 10 Dec 2011

Britain faces a wave of hostile legislation battered through the European Union by a new "Euro-Plus" bloc dominated by France and Germany as senior figures call for the British to be driven out of Europe.

David Cameron's refusal to unconditionally agree to a eurozone "stability union" treaty has polarized relations between Britain and EU at a time when the economic crisis has sharpened European power struggles.

As attitudes harden, senior European politicians and officials are warning that the Prime Minister's stand will have severe consequences for Britain.

Martin Schulz, the German MEP who will become the president of the European Parliament early next year, predicted that Britain could be forced to quit the EU.

"I doubt in the long term whether Britain will stay in the EU," he said.

"The EU can, if necessary, do without Britain, but Britain would have more difficulty without the EU."

In a sign that Anglo-German relations are at a new low, the point was echoed by Gunther Krichbaum, the chairman of the Bundestag's powerful EU committee, a political ally of Angela Merkel.

"The Treaty of Lisbon explicitly opens the possibility of a country's withdrawal," he said. "The British must now decide whether they are for or against Europe."

Der Spiegel predicted that as British applause died away, Cameron would quickly be put to the test as the EU bit back. "He has completely isolated his country on the European stage — and many in his country applaud him for it. But he will soon have to prove that London still has clout in the EU," the popular magazine warned.

A headline in the establishment French newspaper Le Monde warned that a "27-member Europe is finished" after Cameron's veto of a new EU treaty to fix the eurozone debt crisis.

The newspaper called the decision "a choice with major consequences, that will bring about the emergence of a two-speed Europe, from which the UK may be increasingly excluded by core eurozone countries guided for better or for worse by Germany and France."

Le Figaro, the newspaper closest to Nicolas Sarkozy, trumpeted a "new era of isolation" for Britain. Its website poll asking "does the UK still have a place in Europe?" quickly attracted 40,000 respondents and 81 percent answered "Non".

Elmar Brok, a senior German Christian Democrat MEP close to Chancellor Merkel, said the EU "must now marginalize Britain, so that the country comes to feel its loss of influence".

Britain will quickly face new challenges from monthly summits of the Euro-Plus bloc, starting with meetings of the 17 eurozone members and rising to councils of up to 25 as more countries join.

The summits — beginning early in 2012 — will be entirely closed to Britain and will have an agenda far wider than the action needed to enforce the fiscal rules that underpin the euro.

British officials are deeply concerned that the meetings will be taking decisions on areas of economic policy that are enforceable by the EU.

"A decision taken by the Euro-Plus summit is a fait accompli for the EU. If the Euro-Plus decides, that will be translated into an EU decision via its inbuilt qualified majority," said a source. "Britain won't have a chance to influence EU decisions on economic, social and employment legislation that overrides its national law."

A Franco-German letter, signed by the German Chancellor and French President last week, will act as the program of the new Euro-Plus summits and makes chilling reading for Britain.

"We need to foster growth through greater competitiveness as well as greater convergence of economic policies," it notes.

"To these aims, a new common legal framework should be established to allowing for faster progress in specific areas such as financial regulation, labor markets, convergence and harmonization of corporate tax base and creation of a financial transaction tax."

European officials and diplomats have noted that the Euro-Plus, with its inbuilt EU majority, will be able to effectively take decisions on financial services.

"Cameron sank the treaty talks with a demand for protections for the City of London. The resulting grouping will be a battering ram to force through EU decisions, taken by QMV (qualified majority voting). It's ironic really," said a diplomat.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the leader of the Green MEPs in the European Parliament, which has "co-decision" powers over EU financial services legislation, has called for an offensive against the City.

"Now, we must put pressure on the British and force them, by implementing tough regulations on financial markets, to decide if they want out of the EU or if they want to stay inside," he told Der Spiegel.

Britain's greatest hope is that referendums or tensions between France and Germany will tear the new Euro-Plus grouping apart before it can inflict serious damage on the economy.

Although a Euro-Plus intergovernmental treaty could agree to take more notice of the European Commission, it cannot give the EU executive more power to veto tax and spending plans.

Chancellor Merkel wanted eurozone "fiscal discipline" via treaty change between all 27 countries because then the EU has the power to automatically enforce and override national parliaments.

President Sarkozy preferred the inter-governmental Euro-Plus approach for exactly the opposite reason, France does not want a Frankfurt dominated EU overriding the Republic's fiscal sovereignty. He won and the French victory will be a source of serious Franco-German tension.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the leader of Germany's Social Democrat opposition, has attacked Merkel for bowing to the French and agreeing a "fiasco".

"Automatic sanctions have not been decided; other agreements will be legally challenged. This is not the signal that Europe urgently needed to give in the current situation," he said.

Growing popular hostility to the EU across Europe might come to Britain's aid. Democratic obstacles to the Euro-Plus treaty are beginning to materialize in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania and Denmark, while parliamentary opposition in Finland, Latvia and the Czech Republic may also sink the deal.

Lucinda Creighton, the Irish Europe minister, admitted that it was a "toss-up" as to whether a referendum would be held in Ireland, which has rejected previous treaties and is suffering under a savage EU-IMF imposed austerity program. "I would say it's 50-50 and we will be looking at the detail over the next couple of weeks," she said.

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