On Tuesday, as the British cabinet prepared for its first full meeting since Mr. Cameron’s veto on Friday, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, that Mr. Cameron had sought “a specific protocol on financial services, which, as presented, was a risk to the integrity of the internal market” — a reference to the vast European Union trade area.
“This made compromise impossible,” he said. “All other heads of government were left with the choice between paying this price or moving ahead without the U.K.’s participation and accepting an internal agreement among them.”
Mr. Barroso’s remarks seemed certain to fuel the anger of the so-called euroskeptic lawmakers in Mr. Cameron’s dominant Conservative Party who are pressing for a renegotiation of Britain’s entire relationship with the other 26 countries in the European Union.
Mr. Cameron’s veto has also angered Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior coalition partner, who was conspicuously absent when the British Parliament assembled Monday for a raucous debate on events at the summit.
As members of the Labour opposition shouted “Where’s Clegg?” Mr. Cameron seemed at pains to offer soothing words to those afraid that he had so alienated his European allies that Britain was bound to leave the European Union altogether on Monday.
“Britain remains a full member of the E.U., and the events of the last week do nothing to change that,” Mr. Cameron said. “Our membership of the E.U. is vital to our national interest. We are a trading nation, and we need the single market for trade, investment and jobs.”
In his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Barroso offered a contrasting vision, suggesting that British refusal to give ground had left it standing alone, despite efforts by European officials to introduce compromise proposals to bridge the gap between the majority of European Union members and Britain.
He said the compromise would have shielded European Union states outside the 17-nation euro zone from discrimination. Britain boasts the biggest economy of those outside the euro zone, but it relies for at least half its trade on the countries that do use the single currency.
“Unfortunately, that compromise proved impossible,” Mr. Barroso said, “and so it was not possible to have a solution that could allow all 27 member states to agree in the framework of current treaties.”
“Last week, most heads of state or government of the member states showed their willingness to move ahead with European integration toward a fiscal stability union. They showed that they want more Europe, not less,” he said, implicitly criticizing the British for a lack of European spirit.
The veto has plunged British politics into turmoil.
But, after vitriol poured out at Mr. Cameron over the weekend — from the Labour Party, from prominent Liberal Democrats in the coalition government, from European diplomats — Monday’s session in Parliament was oddly anticlimactic. Buoyed by the compliments of anti-European backbenchers in the Conservative Party, who said they would have vetoed the treaty if Mr. Cameron had signed it, the prime minister appeared relaxed and self-assured, exuding the easy confidence that is one of his strongest political assets.
He told Parliament, as he has said all along, that he exercised Britain’s veto because the proposed treaty changes, meant to avert future European economic disaster by strengthening fiscal discipline, gave no assurances to safeguard the future of London’s financial services industry, a critical part of the British economy.
“The choice was a treaty with the proper safeguards or no treaty,” he said. “The result was no treaty.”
Mr. Cameron’s veto left Britain standing alone in Europe. All the other 26 European Union countries either agreed to the proposals, which will be negotiated according to intergovernmental agreements, or said they would seek the approval of their parliaments back home.
Reporting was contributed by Rick Gladstone from New York, Steven Erlanger from Paris, Nicholas Kulish from Berlin, and Stephen Castle from Brussels.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7f80eb80f90e4d99fd8592349b50e9ff
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