Volker Kauder is now a famous man in Great Britain -- but that doesn't necessarily mean the senior Christian Democrat is popular on the other side of the North Sea.
"Just looking for their own advantage and not being prepared to contribute -- that cannot be the message we accept from the British," Kauder said at the conference of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Leipzig on Tuesday, in reference to British opposition to a European Union-wide financial transaction tax favored by Germany. Although the United Kingdom is not in the common currency zone, as a member of the EU itself it "also carries a responsibility for the success of Europe," Kauder said.
With his remarks, Kauder has managed to wake the slumbering British media beast. '"Controversial claim from Merkel ally that EU countries all follow Berlin's lead -- and Britain should fall into line" was how the headline in the tabloid Daily Mail interpreted his remarks. Kauder's word will certainly cause trouble in the UK, especially among euroskeptic members of the Conservatives. The Times [£] [sic] newspaper is already writing of a clash between London and Berlin. » | dsk -- with wires | Wednesday, November 16, 2011
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