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EU leader attacks UK plans to rewrite membership

European Council boss Herman Van Rompuy says no other leader likely to back plan to change terms and put to referendum

Ian Traynor, Europe editor
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 February 2013 17.50 GMT

David Cameron has been put on notice by the president of the European Council that no other EU leader is likely to support his campaign to rewrite the terms of British membership of the union and then put the outcome to a referendum.

In a speech in London Herman Van Rompuy, who chairs and organises the regular EU summits, attacked not only Cameron's aim, but the way the prime minister was waging his campaign, saying he presumed the other leaders of EU countries "neither particularly like it, nor particularly fear it".

"How do you convince a room full of people, when you keep your hand on the door handle? How to encourage a friend to change, if your eyes are searching for your coat?" he asked.

In the first set-piece response from a European leader to Cameron's speech last month laying out his plan to change the terms of Britain's EU membership, the former Belgian prime minister warned that UK government policy on Europe was not just a matter to be sorted out between London and Brussels. It had to be agreed with 26 other governments and those governments were already adjusting their policies and decision-taking because of the Cameron campaign.

In remarks not voiced in public since Cameron made his much-delayed referendum speech last month, and delivered in London to boot, Van Rompuy said: "The wish to redefine your country's relationship with the union has not gone unnoticed. I cannot speak on behalf of the other presidents and prime ministers, but I presume they neither particularly like it, nor particularly fear it."

Arguing that Britain had much to gain by remaining a central player in the EU, and that pooling sovereignty with Germany, France and the other 25 member states actually magnified UK clout rather than diminish it, the Christian Democrat reiterated that there was scant appetite for renegotiating the Lisbon Treaty, which Cameron is pushing to try to "repatriate" powers from Brussels.

"Changing the EU treaties is not the priority," he said. "The work ahead is crucial, but I see no impending need to open the EU treaties for it. Nor do I feel much appetite for it around the leaders' table."

Describing Britain as the champion of the EU's single market, Van Rompuy called on the Cameron coalition to play a more assertive and positive role in pressing its liberal, free-trade agenda, deliberately singling out policy reform areas backed by the UK, while not requiring any radical overhaul of the treaty.

"Things are moving in other areas too. From creating a single European patent (with a branch office about to open in London), to reforming our common fisheries policy, or opening trade talks with the United States."

Olli Rehn, the influential commissioner for monetary affairs, echoed Van Rompuy's call for Britain to play a more central role, warning that it "should not seek to undo our community".

"This is a game in which, if I were a British citizen, I would want my country to be playing as a midfield playmaker rather than watching from the sidelines. No one ever scored goals sitting on the bench."

Van Rompuy conceded that Cameron would be able to discuss the changes he was seeking at an EU summit, while appearing to rule out any fundamental revision of British membership terms.

Senior officials and EU ambassadors in Brussels confirmed this was the prevailing view among the other governments.

Appearing to deliver a message to Cameron and Britain that had been co-ordinated with other EU capitals, Van Rompuy said the leaders "will first listen, once there are precise requests, and then they will talk. The thing is, stepping out of existing areas of co-operation is not just a matter between 'London' and 'Brussels'.

"It would impact on the relationship between your country and 26, soon 27 others. It is with each of them � friends, neighbours and partners � that you'll have to make your case."

Van Rompuy argued that Britain was almost uniquely placed to amplify its international influence through a leading role in the EU.

"Your views resonate with many countries. With them, Britain can play an absolutely central part in making Europe's economy fit for the future. The role is yours to take," he told the British.

"The UK's commercial outreach, its military and diplomatic clout are matched only by a few. You are uniquely placed to leverage your own initiatives, and therefore by working jointly you have the most to win. For a country like the UK, to make its voice heard in the world, 'Europe' does not work as a damper, but as a megaphone."

He reiterated concerns, delivered in an interview with the Guardian in December, that other EU leaders feared the single market could unravel if Britain was allowed to pick and mix the bits it adhered to and the bits it won exemptions from.

And he warned that Britain was free to exit the EU, but that the exit "doesn't come for free".

"It would be legally and politically a most complicated and unpractical affair. Just think of a divorce after 40 years of marriage."

I dont really care what this lump of rubbish says nor camerloon, IT IS IN THE INTEREST OF GREAT BRITAIN TO GET OUT AND BEFORE 24 MILLION SCROUNGERS ARRIVE NEXT YEAR.