Cameron Drops Treaty Amid Brussels Talks
Brussels -- Friday 9 December, 2011
This morning we woke up to the news that our Prime Minister, David Cameron, had vetoed the proposal of an EU-wide Treaty designed to "save" the Euro.
It was a historic and bold move.
During all-night negotiations at the Summit in Brussels, it had become clear that the institutional reforms on the table were not in Britain's interests.
The Prime Minister asked the question why the City of London should have to comply with the new rules designed to protect the Eurozone when Britain is not a Eurozone member.
Germany and France blocked the idea of safeguards that would protect the City from financial services regulation.
However I don't believe that both countries deliberately included provisions which Britain would baulk at in order to marginalise the City, as has been claimed by some in the press.
23-26 Member States (the 17 Eurozone States and up to nine others) will now draft a "treaty within a treay" in order to implement the reforms necessary to save the single currency - they will go their own way down the road to deeper fiscal integration.
Unfortunately, and crucially, the summit has done little to resolve the current crisis facing the Euro and the wider economy.
(Only) 500bn was set aside for the ESM (the bailout fund), the question of Eurobonds is still up in the air and the ECB's involvement is still to be fully fleshed out.
Britain has huge interest in the Euro's health - we need our neighbours to get better.
Cameron has realised this and he has taken a lot of flak from MPs and the press who mistake his attitude for pro-Europeanism.
What happened last night was not a sign of Euro-scepticism either.
He has had one thing in mind throughout - protecting the country's best interests.
