Barroso says UK demands were 'risk' to single market

THE PRESIDENT of the European Commission has stuck the knife into David Cameron, saying the British prime minister's attempts to protect the City of London from new taxes at last week's EU summit were a threat to the single market.

Although Cameron has been lauded by eurosceptics in the Conservative party, his Lib Dem coalition partners are furious at his handling of the affair and, in Europe, Britain has been left isolated.

Now Jose Manuel Barroso, the EC president, has weighed in, telling MEPs today: "As you know, one member state was opposed to amending the Lisbon Treaty.

"The United Kingdom, in exchange for giving its agreement, asked for a specific protocol on financial services which, as presented, was a risk to the integrity of the internal market.

"This made compromise impossible. All other heads of government were left with the choice between paying this price or moving ahead without the UK's participation and accepting an internal agreement among them."

The Guardian's David Gow believes Barroso has "blown apart" Cameron's main justification for wielding his veto, that he was "defending the single market", by saying that his demands, in fact, threatened it.

"Barroso, tabled a compromise talking about protecting the single market and, specifically, financial services," says Gow. "The pent-up venom towards the UK is also now spewing out in the European Parliament - including from anglophiles."

Former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt normally speaks in the European parliament in English. However, today he thought it would be "inappropriate" and used his native tongue instead.

He said: "David Cameron will come to the conclusion that he has made the blunder of a lifetime. If he wants to secure safeguards for the City he needs to be at the negotiation table... There is one golden rule in politics: you only walk away if you are sure that the others will follow." ·