Cameron’s historic EU veto: there was nothing in it for us

PRIME MINISTER David Cameron has used his power of veto to block an EU wide deal proposed by Germany and France for treaty changes that would lead to greater fiscal union. Instead, France and Germany will lead the 17 eurozone countries and at least six other EU nations in a new treaty. Britain will be left outside the deal with Hungary, while Sweden and the Czech Republic are consulting their parliaments. Many hailed Cameron’s decision to use his veto power as a triumph for British independence and interests. Others fear the move could backfire.
 
Historic change

For years people have talked about a British veto, says Nick Robinson on BBC News. Until now it was a threat that existed, but was never used. Now it has, there will be a tussle over what the new euro club-within-a-club can, and can't do. “This veto is not the end of something. It is the beginning of a story whose end is quite unpredictable.”

Britain had no choice

The French are furious, says Benedict Brogan in The Daily Telegraph. One French diplomat said Cameron was acting "like a man who wants to go to a wife-swapping party without taking his own wife". But Cameron was right to reject a deal designed by the French, for the French. “The Prime Minister had no choice but to say Non.”

This wasn’t Cameron being petulant, blogs Fraser Nelson for The Spectator. It was just a simple reflection of where opinion is in this country, and parliament. The new treaty is not about saving Europe, adds Nelson. “It’s a power grab by the French and Germans. Sarkozy wanted power to be transferred from the UK financial services regulator to a new pan-European regulator.”

Cameron may become a scapegoat

Patrick Wintour blogs for The Guardian that Cameron will have delighted and united his Conservative party, the City of London will also be cheering, and he will “be feted as a conquering hero by most of the British press”.

He has even found a friend in Hungary, adds Wintour. But the UK “will now be out of the room when key decisions are made on the single market”. And Cameron “faces the risk of becoming the scapegoat if the euro does collapse”.

Talk about splendid isolation, says the Mole on The Week. But Britain is now so isolated that “the PM will face immediate calls for an 'in or out' referendum on whether Britain should remain a member of the European club at all”. Cameron might end up being “the British prime minister who took Britain out of the EU, easily our biggest trading partner”.

Cameron saving us from the Titanic

Terry Smith, chief executive of interdealer broker Tullett Prebon, told BBC Radio’s Today programme that if Britain is isolated by the veto, “we might be as isolated as somebody who refused to join the Titanic just before it sailed”. There is nothing in the new EU treaty deal, he says, “that guarantees that the euro will survive at all". ·