Posted on 12/08/2011 6:59:36 PM PST by Qbert
David Cameron is at the centre of a furious row with Nicolas Sarkozy after Paris tried to isolate the prime minister at the EU summit by suggesting that Britain is seeking to exempt the City of London from all European regulations.
In a move dismissed by officials in Brussels as an attempt to set Britain up as the fall guy, senior French figures said Cameron wanted an opt out from EU financial services regulation.
The French were said to have found themselves isolated in their attempt to limit an agreement on tough fiscal rules for the single currency just to the eurozone's 17 members. Britain said Sarkozy was distorting the British position, which is to ensure that changes to the eurozone do not harm the City of London.
Cameron confronted Sarkozy during a joint meeting with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, shortly before the EU's 27 leaders met for dinner to try to hammer out an agreement to underpin new fiscal integration in the eurozone.
"The PM was very determined and very strong in the meeting," one British source claimed. The joint meeting took place a few hours before EU leaders embarked on a mammoth effort to prevent the collapse of the single currency.
The leaders, who finally started to examine how to reopen the Lisbon treaty just after 1am Brussels time, are looking at how to establish a rigorous euro stability pact with quasi-automatic penalties for fiscal sinners...
[Snip]
France, Germany and the leaders of the eurozone lined up against Cameron and his campaign to extract a price in return for agreeing to Europe's new "fiscal compact". Sarkozy warned earlier at a meeting of EU centre-right leaders in Marseille that "never has the risk of disintegration been greater" for Europe.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Ping.
Bringing all these leaders together in one place constitutes the largest liars club meeting ever assembled!
Germany and Vichy against England.
This time the Germans might win—Now is Der Tag
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.