Cameron Calls On European Leaders to Publicly Back His Battle against Juncker

Jean-Claude Juncker at the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Prime Minister urges his fellow leaders to express their 'interesting' views on European Commission presidential candidate Jean-Claude Juncker in public

David Cameron has hit out at European leaders who have failed to support him publicly in his efforts to block Jean-Claude Juncker becoming president of the European Commission.

In an apparent rebuke to Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, Mr Cameron suggested that European leaders have expressed scepticism in private about Mr Juncker’s appointment but have failed to nail their colours to the mast in public.

Mrs Merkel is thought to be pressing for Mr Juncker's appointment to be confirmed at a meeting of the European Council at the end of next week.

Downing Street believes that Mr Juncker, an arch-federalist, will make it more difficult for Mr Cameron to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with Brussels before holding an in-out referendum in 2017. The Prime Minister has previously warned that he could increase the chances of Britain leaving the EU.

This morning the Prime Minister made an eleventh hour call to the Matteo Renzi, the Italian Prime Minister who’s support is key to Mr Cameron’s effort to gather a blocking minority in the Commission’s voting system.

However there are fears that the Italian Prime Minister will decide to support Mr Juncker in return for concessions from European heavyweights of France and Germany.

Britain’s allies - including Sweden, the Netherlands and Hungary - are too small to meet the veto threshold. » | Georgia Graham, Political Correspondent | Wednesday, June 18, 2014