LONDON:DIVISIONS HAVE emerged between British prime minister David Cameron and Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg over Mr Cameron's declaration to Conservative MPs that he would use the European Union debt crisis to force concessions from Brussels.
Mr Cameron, appearing before the powerful 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers on Wednesday night, made it clear the crisis – which will require Britain’s agreement to solve, even though it is not a euro zone member – offered “opportunities”.
However, Mr Clegg took a markedly different line. “I don’t think it helps at all, when we are looking forward at trying to work out what comes out of the discussions on the reform of the euro zone, to prioritise what we think we can kind of get out of it.”
Saying the euro’s collapse would have “catastrophic” consequences for the United Kingdom, Mr Clegg told Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, who have been openly enjoying the EU’s difficulties: “Be careful what you wish for.”
“What we want from this is a successful euro zone. Full stop. That is what the United Kingdom needs.
“I don’t think it is right at all for us to immediately start speculating: ‘Oh can we get this back, can we get this back, can we demand this price, can we demand that pound of flesh?’
“This is about us working with our euro zone colleagues because it is massively in our interests to do so,” Mr Clegg continued.
“If this is constantly seen through the old-fashioned prism of a sort of zero-sum game – that if something goes wrong elsewhere in Europe, we gain – we really are going to grab the wrong end of the stick,” he said.
“It is not a zero-sum game. We really are in all this together when it comes to Europe. What happens in the euro zone has a direct effect on employment, on prosperity, on living standards in our country,” Mr Clegg said in London.
The outcome of the Brussels summit, although it will apply only to the 17 members of the single currency, will have to be approved by all of the union’s 27 members. The UK, like others, will have a veto.
