David Cameron vetoes EU treaty change

[Mathew]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16104275

David Cameron: ''What is on offer isn't in Britain's interests''
Measures to tackle the crisis in Europe will continue without the UK after David Cameron vetoed a treaty change.

Mr Cameron said it was not in Britain's interest "so I didn't sign up to it".

But France's President Sarkozy said his "unacceptable" demands for exemptions over financial services blocked the chance of a full treaty.

Of the 27 EU members Britain and Hungary look set to stay outside the accord, with Sweden and the Czech Republic having to consult on it.

Nearly 10 hours of overnight talks could not produce an agreement involving all member states. A full accord "wasn't possible, given the position of our British friends", President Sarkozy said, in the early hours of Friday morning.

The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said the consequences "could scarcely be greater for Europe and for Britain's relationship with Europe".

Mr Sarkozy said the eurozone countries would sign an intergovernmental accord aimed at stabilising the currency in the face of the debt crisis, plus any other EU members that wanted to join.

Speaking at a news conference following the meeting, he said: "The countries that have remained outside are Hungary and Britain, and the countries that have to consult with their parliaments are the Czechs and the Swedes."

Mr Cameron told a news conference: "We want the eurozone countries to come together and solve their problems. But we should only allow that to happen within the EU treaties if there are proper protections for the single market, for other key British interests.

Extremely good news and the decision that was long over-due; I really didn't think David Cameron would have the guts to put his foot down and say no! It's a step in the right direction?

[cocaine]

thank christ for that

[Fez]

Wow... I did not expect this.

Never respected Cameron until this.

[Technologic]

There goes any power we had in Europe.

[dbgtz]

There goes any power we had in Europe.

Surely the fact we weren't involved in the Merkozy talks shows that we had little power anyway. Hopefully one step closer to be out of it tbh.

[Technologic]

Leaving the EU = the worst possible thing for the UK right now

[dbgtz]

Leaving the EU = the worst possible thing for the UK right now

Not really, in my eyes it's just a waste of money and time.

[Technologic]

Not really, in my eyes it's just a waste of money and time.

Our economy is ****, europe is a massive source of money for us, leave the EU and we lose that money.

[cocaine]

Our economy is ****, europe is a massive source of money for us, leave the EU and we lose that money.

if we were in the eurozone at all our debt exposure to greece's (and very soon to be italy's) bailout packages would be a hell of a lot more. in times like these when we're close to a double dip recession and inflation 3% above target i think that it would impact our economy a lot more negatively than our current position..

[dbgtz]

Our economy is ****, europe is a massive source of money for us, leave the EU and we lose that money.

We put in 103 billion and got back 46 billion in 2007-2013 (estimated). We will never see that back and this massive source of money has to end somewhere. We could be saving huge amounts of money by getting out of the EU and ultimately borrow less which would help get us out of the crisis anyway.