03 February 2014

Britain at odds with France and Germany over EU reforms

UK - Germany

As reported by the Financial Times (subscription), Germany’s new foreign minister has warned Britain not to backtrack on European integration, saying the UK should play a constructive role at the heart of the EU. "We look to have an influence on shaping this common Europe and we would also like the UK to have an influence not from the sidelines but from the midst of it", Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on his first visit to the UK since last year’s German election.

He gave a clear signal to David Cameron not to challenge the continuing integration of European states. The foreign minister said: "We need to make Europe more functional and more efficient, and the state of integration we have achieved is, from a German point of view, an advantage and I don’t think we should backtrack on it".

"The European Union is one of the reasons for peace, even though our interests may have been different, even in spite of our different histories before agreeing on European cooperation. Despite the wounds we have inflicted on each other, we have managed to get together - politically - in this part of the world. We have convinced people, we have learned to deal with different opinions and that is civilising progress which cannot be questioned or challenged", he is quoted in the Daily Mail, warning against the type of 'nationalism' which caused the First World War.

The minister was cool about Mr Cameron’s attempt to rewrite EU treaties in time for the 2017 promised referendum, write the Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal (subscription). Mr Steinmeier said that because European leaders were divided about treaty change, "I really can’t dare to predict anything".

Mr Steinmeier’s comments are a further indication of the difficulties Mr Cameron is likely to face when trying to wrest back powers from Brussels, a project for which he needs the support of key European powers such as Germany. Mr Cameron is facing an uphill battle persuading fellow EU members to agree to renegotiate the terms of the union’s treaties, something he wants to do in order to contain rising anti-European feeling in Britain.

Mr Steinmeier left open the possibility of renegotiating European treaties in time for a British referendum on continued EU membership in 2017, as long as the overall process of European integration was not imperilled. "We are not principally against discussing an adaptation of the treaties", Mr Steinmeier said, but it would be an "exaggeration" to suggest that Germany and the UK were "pulling in the same direction" on the issue. Nevertheless he struck a more moderate tone than that taken by François Hollande during his visit last week.

UK - France

As reported by the Telegraph, at the Anglo/French summit, François Hollande said that allowing Britain to renegotiate its relationship with Europe was not "urgent". The comments are a set back for the Prime Minister, who insists that so called "treaty change" has to happen before any referendum on whether Britain should leave the European Union in 2017.

Mr Hollande said: "France would like the eurozone to be better coordinated, better integrated and, if there are going to be amendments to the text, we don't feel that for the time being they are urgent. We feel that revising the treaty is not a priority for the time being." He continued: "France would like the UK to remain within the EU. France would like to have a more efficient Europe which can attain the objectives which we consider to be essential - growth, employment, energy and, of course, the capacity to bring in the techniques for tomorrow and to protect our population."

David Cameron said: "Just as the eurozone needs change, so Britain wants change in Europe - change for all of Europe to make Europe more competitive, more flexible, better able to succeed in this global race, but also changes that Britain wants to see. My position absolutely remains that we want to see those changes, we want to see that renegotiation. That renegotiation will involve elements of treaty change and then there will be a referendum in Britain before the end of 2017 that is an in/out referendum."

The BBC, however, reports that the prime minister suffered a setback after proposed legislation that would have enshrined the referendum pledge into law was killed off in the Lords - amid opposition from Labour, Lib Dem and crossbench peers. Labour said Mr Hollande's remarks were further proof that Mr Cameron's European agenda was "fraying at the seams". "Europe does need to change, but the UK's partners are already ruling out treaty change on the arbitrary timetable that David Cameron has set out", its Europe spokesman Gareth Thomas said.