Senior Conservatives believe Britain may be able to regain control of some social and employment regulations and secure the future of the rebate as a condition of allowing closer integration among countries using the euro.
The plan would lead to tensions in the Coalition as the Liberal Democrats are likely to block any move for Britain to dilute its relationship with the EU.
This week, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, was asked whether Britain should seek to capitalise on the crisis. “We want a successful Europe, full stop,” he said. “Anything now which suggests we are somehow trying to distance ourselves from that would in the long run be economically self-defeating.”
Mr Osborne is thought to be pushing to combine negotiations over the bail-out with forthcoming discussions over the EU’s budget between 2014 and 2020.
EU leaders this week agreed a new €159 billion [£140 billion] bail-out for Greece, which will technically be allowed to default on some of its debts.
0 comments:
Post a Comment