Britain won't be excluded from EU: Cameron

2011-12-09 20:22

London - Britain will not be excluded from the European Union despite vetoing a treaty aimed at saving the euro, but its relationship with the bloc has changed, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday.

"We are not being excluded, we are in the European Union, we're a leading member of the single market," Cameron told British broadcasters after a summit in Brussels.

"When it comes to defence, we're the leading [EU] member of Nato, when it comes to driving forward European foreign policy, we're actually one of the leading players in that.

"But no we're not in the single currency, we don't want to be in the single currency, we're not in the Schengen no-borders agreement and I'm glad we're not in that."

Cameron blocked an EU-wide treaty on tighter budget policing overnight, saying that it would have threatened Britain's vital financial services sector in the City of London.

But afterwards the other 26 members of the EU said they were willing to join a "new fiscal compact" to resolve the two-year euro debt crisis, leaving Britain in the cold in Europe.

"In terms of the future, yes of course this does represent a change in our relationship with Europe," Cameron said.

"But the core of our relationship - the single market, the trade, the investment, the growth, the jobs that we want to see - that remains as it was."

Cameron has faced pressure at home from the so-called "eurosceptics" within his own Conservative party.

- AFP