Nick Clegg: Public Fury at Euro Crisis Will Fuel Extremism
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A wave of “extremism and xenophobia” will sweep across Europe unless political leaders take urgent action to deal with the debt crisis, Nick Clegg has warned.

The Deputy Prime Minister predicted that arguments in Britain about whether to pull out of the European Union would be “like a small side show compared to the rise of political extremism” in the next few years.

In his bleakest assessment to date, Mr Clegg admitted that his beloved European project faces a “huge” crisis of confidence as the public loses faith in the EU “as a whole”.

Mr Clegg’s intervention followed warnings from Cabinet ministers that the eurozone debt crisis is approaching a “moment of clarity” when it is “quite likely” that Greece will be forced out of the single currency.

In an interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel, the Liberal Democrat leader said EU nations are “condemned to work with each other” but warned that nine European governments have “fallen” since 2009.

“Everybody should be more active,” he said. “At the moment, what’s happening is you have one emergency summit after another; you have one election after the other; you have one bail out after the other.

“This cannot carry on because the combination of economic insecurity and political paralysis, we know this from the history of our continent, is the ideal recipe for an increase in extremism and xenophobia. » | Tim Ross, and James Kirkup | Monday, May 21, 2012

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Ken Clarke attacks 'nationalist' eurosceptic Tories: MPs who want a referendum on membership of the European Union are “right-wing nationalists” who would bring "disaster" to Britain, Kenneth Clarke has said. ¶ The Justice Secretary, who is regarded as the most "europhile" Conservative Cabinet minister, said calls to consider withdrawing from the EU were "a dangerous irrelevance" to the economic crisis. » | Tim Ross, Political Correspondent | Sunday, May 20, 2012

Greek Leftist Leader Alexis Tsipras: 'It's a War between People and Capitalism'

THE GUARDIAN: Greece's eurozone fate may now be in the hands of the 37-year-old political firebrand and his Syriza party

"I don't believe in heroes or saviours," says Alexis Tsipras, "but I do believe in fighting for rights … no one has the right to reduce a proud people to such a state of wretchedness and indignity."

The man who holds the fate of the euro in his hands – as the leader of the Greek party willing to tear up the country's €130bn (£100bn) bailout agreement – says Greece is on the frontline of a war that is engulfing Europe.

A long bombardment of "neo-liberal shock" – draconian tax rises and remorseless spending cuts – has left immense collateral damage. "We have never been in such a bad place," he says, sleeves rolled up, staring hard into the middle distance, from behind the desk that he shares in his small parliamentary office. "After two and a half years of catastrophe Greeks, are on their knees. The social state has collapsed, one in two youngsters is out of work, there are people leaving en masse, the climate psychologically is one of pessimism, depression, mass suicides."

But while exhausted and battle weary, the nation at the forefront of Europe's escalating debt crisis and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy is also hardened. And, increasingly, they are looking towards Tsipras to lead their fight.

"Defeat is the battle that isn't waged," says the young politician who almost overnight has seen his radical left coalition party, Syriza, jump from representing fewer than 5% of Greeks to enjoying ratings of more than 25% in polls.

"You ask me if I am afraid. I'd be afraid if we continued on this path, a path to social hell … when someone fights there is a big chance that he will win and we are fighting this to win."

Before Greeks went to the polls on 6 May, neither Tsipras nor his party were a name to be reckoned with. If anything both were the butt of vague mockery: a former pony-tailed student communist leading a rag-tag band of ex-Trotskyists, Maoists, champagne socialists and greens. Tsipras's assistants – wielding Louis Vuitton bags and fashionable sunglasses – readily admit they are signed up "militants" mostly of the anti-globalisation cause. » | Helena Smith in Athens | Friday, May 18, 2012

Related »

"Trust Me," Greece Will Not Leave Euro: Greek MP
May 17 - As Greece counts down to its next election, one of the country's youngest MPs shares her thoughts on the Left, the Right and the chances of a euro exit.


Related »

Greece to Hold New Elections
Greek politicians have failed to form a government and will now head towards holding a new election. Polls show the vote could favour the country's leftists who want to renege on the terms of bailout agreed on by the government earlier in the year. This will see the country push closer towards an exit from the eurozone, a situation which IMF chief Christine Lagarde says could get "quite messy". Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan reports from Athens.

Related material here and here

Greece On Brink of Collapse
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Europe’s financial crisis lurched into a perilous new phase as dire predictions emerged of a collapse in Greece’s economy, with a run on its banks bringing an inevitable end to its membership of the euro.

As leaders in Athens accepted the need for a new general election to end a national stalemate, the International Monetary Fund said Europe’s leaders should prepare for the possibility of a Greek departure from the single currency.

Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, warned she was “technically prepared for anything” and said the utmost effort must be made to ensure any Greek exit was orderly. The effect was likely to be “quite messy” with risks to growth, trade and financial markets. “It is something that would be extremely expensive and would pose great risks but it is part of options that we must technically consider,” she said.

Raising tensions still further, Germany warned Greek voters that the wrong result in next month’s election will force their country out of the single currency.

Greece’s president warned, perhaps most alarmingly, that its banks risk running out of money, posing a “threat to our national existence”.

The escalating turmoil sharpened fears in financial markets, with European shares and the euro itself falling again. On the stock markets, the Eurostoxx 600 fell 0.7 per cent to a year-low; Germany’s Dax dropped 0.8 per cent and Spain’s Ibex was down 1.6 per cent. In London the FTSE100 slid 0.5 per cent. Following this month’s inconclusive election, Greek parties yesterday failed again to agree a new government. A new election, most likely to be held in mid-June, could see more gains for parties that want to reject the austerity measures that are a condition of international efforts to bail out the debt-crippled state. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels and James Kirkup | Tuesday, May 15, 2012

WIRTSCHAFTSWOCHE: Fliegt Griechenland nun aus dem Euro? : Die Regierungsbildung ist gescheitert. Griechenland taumelt Neuwahlen entgegen – und dem Euro-Aus. Fliegt Griechenland nun aus dem Euro und warum hoffen die Griechen nun ausgerechnet auf Frankreichs neuen Präsidenten François Hollande? Die wichtigsten Fragen und Antworten. » | Von Tim Rahmann | Dienstag, 15. Mai 2012

Greece Calls New Election After Coalition Talks Fail

REUTERS.COM: Greece abandoned a nine-day hunt for a government on Tuesday and called a new election that threatens to hasten the nation's slide towards bankruptcy and a future outside the euro zone.

An inconclusive election on May 6 left parliament split between supporters and opponents of a 130 billion euro bailout deal which is reviled by Greeks for imposing deep wage, pension and public spending cuts.

A second election is expected to produce a similarly divided parliament, with opponents of the EU/IMF rescue consolidating their gains and raising the likelihood of an anti-bailout coalition that reneges on the deal keeping Greece afloat.

"For God's sake, let's move towards something better and not something worse," Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos told reporters after a meeting of party leaders failed to agree on a government of technocrats. "Our motherland can find its way, we will fight for it to find its way."

European leaders have said they will halt the aid if promises given in return for the bailout are not kept. If so, Greece could go bankrupt as early as next month. Analysts say that this will almost certainly herald a Greek return to its drachma national currency. » | Lefteris Papadimas and Dina Kyriakidou | ATHENS | Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Verbunden »

Griechenland soll den Euro behalten

Related »

Merkel Tells Greece to Back Cuts or Face Euro Exit

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Greece may be forced to leave the euro if the country refuses to implement spending cuts agreed with the European Union, Angela Merkel warned.

Raising the spectre of a Greek exit, the German chancellor said “solidarity for the euro” was threatened by the on[-]going political crisis in Athens.

Stock markets around the world fell sharply with fears mounting that a euro break-up could lead to renewed financial turmoil. The FTSE-100 index of Britain’s major companies fell by two per cent to 5465, with bank shares hit particularly hard.

The cost of Spanish government borrowing also hit a record high since the single currency was introduced because of concerns that the crisis will spread.

Today, François Hollande, the new French president, will be sworn in and, in an indication of the concern gripping Europe, will almost immediately travel to Berlin to hold talks with Mrs Merkel that will be dominated by Greece’s plight.

Attempts to form a new government in Athens have been thwarted for the past nine days, although the country’s president will meet all major parties this afternoon to discuss the forming of a “technocratic” administration rather than a coalition.

An out[-]going Greek minister warned that the country could descend into “civil war” amid the chaos of a euro exit. “If Greece cannot meet its obligations and serve its debt the pain will be great,” Michalis Chrysohoidis was quoted as telling a local radio station. “What will prevail are armed gangs with Kalashnikovs and which one has the greatest number of Kalashnikovs will count … we will end up in civil war.” » | Robert Winnett, David Blair and Bruno Waterfield | Monday, May 14, 2012

Related »

Anti-bailout Bloc to Shun Greek Crisis Talks
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras says he will not join Monday's last round of coalition talks convened by president.

Related »

Time to Admit Defeat: Greece Can No Longer Delay Euro Zone Exit

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: After Greek voters rejected austerity in last week's election, plunging the country into a political crisis, Europe has been searching for a Plan B for Greece. It's time to admit that the EU/IMF rescue plan has failed. Greece's best hopes now lie in a return to the drachma. By SPIEGEL Staff

There are many things Alexis Tsipras likes about Germany. The leader of Greece's Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza) party drives his BMW motorcycle to work at the Greek parliament in the morning, Germany's über-leftist Oskar Lafontaine is one of his political allies, and when it comes to his daily work, his colleagues have noticed a certain tendency toward Prussian-style perfection.

Tsipras could easily count as a friend of the Germans, if it weren't for the German chancellor. Greek magazines have frequently caricatured Angela Merkel dressed in a Nazi uniform, because she imposes her fondness for balanced budgets and austerity on the rest of Europe. The Greeks, says Tsipras, want to "put an end" to the Germans' requirements and their "brutal austerity policy."

Tsipras is the new political star in Athens. While the country's washed-up mainstream parties struggled for days to form a new government, the clever young politician has been dominating the headlines with his coalition movement of Trotskyites, anarchists and leftist socialists.

In the recent elections, Tsipras' Syriza party advanced to become the second-largest political force in the country, and Tsipras is making sure his gray-faced opponents from the Greek political establishment know it. Surrounded by cameras and microphones, he stood in the Athens government district last Tuesday, put on his winner's smile and called upon the two traditional parties, the center-left Socialists (PASOK) and the conservative New Democracy, to send a letter "to the EU leadership" and cancel the bailout deal that Athens made with the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Tsipras knows what many Greeks are thinking. At the end of last week, his poll numbers rose to a new record level of almost 28 percent.

Turning Point

Two years after the government in Athens requested the first emergency loans in Brussels, the European debt crisis is reaching a turning point. Europe and the international community pumped about €240 billion ($312 billion) into the Balkan nation, government employees were let go, pensions were slashed and a series of restructuring programs were approved.

But even though the country is virtually being governed by the European Commission and the IMF, Greece's debts are higher than ever and the recession is worsening. As the political situation becomes increasingly chaotic, new elections seem all the more likely.

At the Chancellery in Berlin, the television images from Athens now remind Merkel's advisers of conditions in the ill-fated Weimar Republic of 1919-1933. Back then, the Germans perceived the Treaty of Versailles as a supposed "disgrace." Now, the Greeks feel the same way about the austerity measures imposed by Brussels. And, as in the 1920s in Germany, the situation in Greece today benefits fringe parties on both the left and the right. The country's political system is unraveling, and some advisers even fear that the tense situation could lead to a military coup.

Greece has been in intensive care for years, but the patient, instead of recovering, is just getting sicker and sicker. In a confidential report, which SPIEGEL has seen, experts from the IMF arrive at a devastating verdict. The country, they write, has only "a small industrial base" and is characterized by "structural incrustations" and an "excessively large role of the public sector." » | SPIEGEL Staff | Monday, May 14, 2012

Inside Story – France: A New Political Era
Is François Hollande, the French president-elect, up to the challenges facing his country and Europe?

Related »

Death in the Morning: How One Pensioner's Suicide Has Traumatised Greece
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Until Wednesday morning, Dimitris Christoulas, a respectable middle-class pensioner, was familiar only to the residents of the quiet Ampelokipous district of Athens where he had lived and worked hard for nearly 40 years.

All that changed at 8.45am, rush hour, when the 77-year-old former pharmacist and pillar of his shopkeeping community put a hand gun to his head and shot himself under a giant Cyprus tree on the central Syntagma Square.

He fell to the ground in front of the national parliament that many Greeks have come to blame for the corruption and mismanagement that has plunged their country into crisis, and lay there dead as shocked commuters looked on.

Yesterday, 24 hours after his suicide, the name Dimitris Christoulas is known to most in this troubled country.

"A martyr for Greece" declared the Eleftheros Typos newspaper. "Scream of desperation" said the headline in Avyi next to a picture of Edvard Munch's celebrated painting. Many press commentaries compared his death to the protest suicides that unleashed the Arab spring in Tunisia and across the Middle East last year.

To many – including neighbours in hi close community, he has become a hero.

"He did not rebel from his couch. He was a beautiful man, he will live on in history," said Pannayotta, a housewife in her late 50s, living on the same street as the pensioner.

The incendiary suicide note Mr Chritoulas left behind urging young Greeks to rise up has also struck a chord with millions of people who see their highly indebted nation's social fabric being torn apart by economic recession and externally imposed austerity measures.

"I cannot find any other form of struggle except a dignified end," he wrote. "I believe that young people with no future will one day take up and hang this country's traitors in arms in Syntagma Square just as the Italians hanged Mussolini in 1945." Read on and comment » | Bruno Waterfield | Athens | Thursday, April 05, 2012

Related »

Dutch Freedom Party Pushes Euro Exit as €2.4 trillion Rescue Bill Looms

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Dutch Freedom Party has called for a return to the Guilder, becoming the first political movement in the eurozone with a large popular base to opt for withdrawal from the single currency.

"The euro is not in the interests of the Dutch people," said Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing populist party with a sixth of the seats in the Dutch parliament. "We want to be the master of our own house and our own country, so we say yes to the guilder. Bring it on."

Mr Wilders made his decision after receiving a report by London-based Lombard Street Research concluding that the Netherlands is badly handicapped by euro membership, and that it could cost EMU’s creditor core more than €2.4 trillion to hold monetary union together over the next four years. "If the politicians in The Hague disagree with our report, let them show the guts to hold a referendum. Let the Dutch people decide," he said.

Mr Wilders is not part of the coalition. However, the minority government of Mark Rutte relies on the Freedom Party to pass legislation. The two men were in talks on Monday on €16bn of fresh austerity cuts needed stop the budget deficit jumping to 4.5pc of GDP. » | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard | Monday, March 05, 2012

My comment:

This is a funny thing! This paper has never missed an opportunity to vilify Geert Wilders when he has spoken out politically incorrectly about Islam, but now that he speaks about a subject – the demise of the euro – close to this newspaper's heart, he is touted as a hero. Well, well! Fancy that! – © Mark

This comment also appears here.

German Cabinet Minister Calls for Greek Euro Exit
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Germany’s interior minister called for Greece to leave the eurozone on Saturday as hopes that the world’s richest countries would stump up more cash to help the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fight Europe’s debt crisis faded.

Becoming the first member of Germany’s cabinet to openly call for a Greek exit, Hans-Peter Friedrich told Der Spiegel magazine that Greece’s chances of restoring its financial health would be greater outside the euro.

“I’m not saying that Greece should be thrown out but rather to create incentives that it can’t say ‘no’ to,” he added.

His comments came as eurozone leaders faced calls to increase their own efforts before any more money is made available from the IMF. Fresh from agreeing a second €130bn (£110bn) bail-out for Greece, there were hopes that this weekend’s gathering of G20 finance ministers in Mexico City would achieve a deal on how to ramp up the IMF’s own European war chest by as much as $600bn (£378bn).

UK Treasury officials made it clear that any new deal with the IMF was now likely to be delayed until meetings in April. Eurozone leaders have been negotiating with the US, China and Japan to contribute more to the IMF to build a “financial firewall” that would shield the likes of the Spanish and Italian economies from any intensification of the region’s crisis this year. » | Richard Blackden, in Mexico City | Saturday, February 25, 2012

Germany Drawing Up Plans for Greece to Leave the Euro
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Plans for Greece to default, potentially leaving the euro, have been drafted in Germany as the European Union begins to face up to the fact that Greek debt is spiralling out of control - with or without a second bailout.

The German finance ministry is actively pushing for Greece to declare itself bankrupt and to agree a "haircut" on the bulk of its debts held by banks, a move that would be classed as a default by financial markets.

Eurozone finance ministers meet on Monday to approve the next tranche of loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, designed to stave off national bankruptcy while the new Greek government puts the country's finances in order.

But the severe austerity measures being demanded have caused such fury in Greece, and the cuts required are so deep, that Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, does not believe that any government would be able to implement them.

His pessimism has been tipped into despair with a secret European Commission, Central and IMF report that even if Greece made good on its promises, it would not be enough to reach the target of bringing total debt to 120 per cent of GDP by 2020.

"He just thinks the Greeks cannot do what needs to be done. And even if by some miracle they did what has been promised, he - and a growing group - are convinced it will not pull Greece out the hole," said a eurozone official. » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Saturday, February 18, 2012

Greece Is Being Forced Out of Eurozone, Venizelos Claims

THE GUARDIAN: Greek finance minister says troika is shifting terms of €130bn bailout deal as part of move to force country out of eurozone

Greece rounded bitterly on its EU paymasters when the finance minister and socialist leader, Evangelos Venizelos, accused the eurozone of deliberately changing the terms of a proposed €130bn (£110bn) bailout because key players wanted to kick the country out of the single currency.

The charge that some eurozone countries were seeking to engineer a Greek sovereign default and exit from the euro deepened the rancour between debtor and creditors in the dangerous standoff. "There are many in the eurozone who don't want us any more," Venizelos declared at a meeting with President Karolos Papoulias. "We are constantly being given new terms and conditions."

Papoulias went even further, denouncing Germany and Greece's north European creditors after Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, said that Greece must not turn into a "bottomless pit" for eurozone bailout funds and that Europe was better prepared than when the crisis erupted two years ago to cope with a Greek sovereign default.

"Who is Mr Schäuble to ridicule Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finns?" declared the Greek head of state. "I don't accept insults to my country by Mr Schäuble." » | Ian Traynor and Larry Elliott | Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Greece Lies Bankrupt, Humiliated and Ablaze: Is Cradle of Democracy Finished?

THE GUARDIAN: The violence, looting and chaos engulfing the country underlines growing rift between the Greek people and their politicians

Greece got rid of its military dictators in July 1974. But almost four decades later, as the debt-stricken country endures a crisis that some might say is almost as bad as the long dark night of their rule, it is still impossible to protest in the cradle of democracy.

When tens of thousands of Greeks tried to demonstrate peacefully in front of the large sandstone parliament building on Sunday night, they were met almost immediately with volleys of teargas. The toxic fumes were the authorities' answer not only to the popular opposition unleashed by the prospect of yet more austerity but the fear that underpins it. For angst, like uncertainty, is now haunting Greece.

What followed was textbook chaos: a familiar mix of young punks with no relation to ordinary protesters going on the rampage, setting fire to banks, stores and cafes. Scenes of bedlam and mayhem that ensured the event taking place inside the Athens parliament – a ballot on deeply unpopular measures in return for the rescue funds that will keep bankruptcy at bay – was thoroughly drowned out.

Buildings burned into the early hours. By the time Athenians awoke, the historic heart of their ancient city resembled a war zone. Shops along busy boulevards lay looted, their shutters shattered and smashed. Mangled bus stops lay strewn among the detritus. The charred remains of two of the capital's oldest cinemas smouldered, and, with the stench of teargas still hanging in the air, newspapers proclaimed the vote had been passed.

"All this," said Angela Economou, a student taking in a blackened edifice that had once been a bank, "when all we had wanted to do was exercise our democratic right.

"It is not the politicians who are suffering, it's the people. And these are measures that don't only kill your creative flame, they make you despair."

As Europe's great debt drama intensifies, it is clear that in the country where it began nothing is going to plan. Teetering on the edge of economic collapse, Greece is also on the brink of becoming ungovernable; its politicians panic-stricken and discredited; its institutions barely functioning; its people ground down by waves of budget cuts.

Three years into the crisis and the crushing austerity demanded by the EU, ECB and IMF, the country's troika of creditors, is clearly having a devastating effect.

Unemployment, once among the lowest in the EU, is nudging 21%, an all-time high, industry has all but collapsed, and nationwide hundreds of small businesses, once the lifeblood of the Greek economy, are closing by the day. The desperate and poor can no longer be hidden. Begging has proliferated. So, too, have the homeless, mostly men who can no longer afford a roof over their heads who crouch in doorways or lie strewn across pavements, buried under blankets, hands outstretched. » | Helena Smith | Monday, February 13, 2012

Streit in der EU: Westerwelle umschmeichelt die Briten

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Er bemüht sich, Brücken zu bauen. Nach dem britischen Veto beim EU-Gipfel wollte Außenminister Westerwelle in London zeigen, dass Großbritannien ein wichtiger EU-Partner bleibt. Doch die Pressekonferenz verlief nicht pannenfrei - und die Engländer beharren auf dem Nein zur Fiskalunion.

"Don't mention the war", lautet die Grundregel für deutsche Besucher in Großbritannien. Das hinderte Außenminister Guido Westerwelle nicht daran, bei seinem London-Besuch am Montag ausführlich über seine prägenden Kindheitserlebnisse im Nachkriegseuropa zu berichten.


In den siebziger Jahren sei er mit zwei Schulfreunden zum Zelten in der Bretagne gewesen, erzählte er staunenden britischen Journalisten in einer Pressekonferenz. Als sie sich in einem Tante-Emma-Laden eindecken wollten, brach die französische Inhaberin in Tränen aus und verschwand, als sie den starken deutschen Akzent des Teenagers hörte. Kurz darauf erschien ihre Tochter und erklärte den verdutzten Jungs, sie sollten es nicht persönlich nehmen, ihr Vater sei im Krieg von den Deutschen getötet worden.

Westerwelle erzählte die Anekdote - und eine weitere über die Berliner Mauer -, um den Briten die Bedeutung der EU aus deutscher Sicht zu erklären. "Bitte verstehen Sie: Für uns ist Europa mehr als eine Währung oder ein gemeinsamer Markt", sagte der Liberale in fließendem Englisch. "Wir wollen eine politische Union".

Die britischen Zuhörer schwiegen betreten, das Wort "politische Union" ist auf der Insel eine Chiffre für EU-Diktatur. Gastgeber William Hague, britischer Außenminister und führender Euro-Skeptiker, lobte pflichtschuldig den "eindringlichen" Beitrag seines deutschen Kollegen. Doch verzichtete er selbst komplett auf Pathos, als er das britische Verhältnis zu Europa beschrieb. Gemeinsam mit den Deutschen wolle man für mehr Wettbewerb im Binnenmarkt kämpfen, sagte Hague. Man plane eine Reihe von neuen Initiativen.

In den beiden Aussagen wurde das ganze Ausmaß der Entfremdung zwischen Kontinentaleuropa und Großbritannien deutlich. Die einen betrachten die EU als Schicksalsgemeinschaft, die anderen sehen nichts als einen großen Absatzmarkt. Und an diesem fundamentalen Unterschied, das machte die Pressekonferenz deutlich, wird sich auch künftig nichts ändern. » | Von Carsten Volkery, London | Montag 19. Dezember 2011

EU Treaty: Britain Now Faces a Europe That Is Becoming Hostile

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Britain faces a wave of hostile legislation battered through the European Union by a new "Euro-Plus" bloc dominated by France and Germany as senior figures call for the British to be driven out of Europe.

David Cameron's refusal to unconditionally agree to a eurozone "stability union" treaty has polarised relations between Britain and EU at a time when the economic crisis has sharpened European power struggles.

As attitudes harden, senior European politicians and officials are warning that the Prime Minister's stand will have severe consequences for Britain.

Martin Schulz, the German MEP who will become the president of the European Parliament early next year, predicted that Britain could be forced to quit the EU.

"I doubt in the long term whether Britain will stay in the EU," he said.

"The EU can, if necessary, do without Britain, but Britain would have more difficulty without the EU."

In a sign that Anglo-German relations are at a new low, the point was echoed by Gunther Krichbaum, the chairman of the Bundestag's powerful EU committee, a political ally of Angela Merkel.

"The Treaty of Lisbon explicitly opens the possibility of a country's withdrawal," he said. "The British must now decide whether they are for or against Europe."

Der Spiegel predicted that as British applause died away, Mr Cameron would quickly be put to the test as the EU bit back. "He has completely isolated his country on the European stage - and many in his country applaud him for it. But he will soon have to prove that London still has clout in the EU," the popular magazine warned.

A headline in the establishment French newspaper Le Monde warned that a "27-member Europe is finished" after Mr Cameron's veto of a new EU treaty to fix the eurozone debt crisis.

The newspaper called the decision "a choice with major consequences, that will bring about the emergence of a two-speed Europe, from which the UK may be increasingly excluded by core eurozone countries guided for better or for worse by Germany and France," [sic]

Le Figaro, the newspaper closest to Nicolas Sarkozy, trumpeted a "new era of isolation" for Britain. Its website poll asking "does the UK still have a place in Europe?" quickly attracted 40,000 respondents and 81 per cent answered "Non".

Elmar Brok, a senior German Christian Democrat MEP close to Chancellor Merkel, said the EU "must now marginalise Britain, so that the country comes to feel its loss of influence". Read on and comment » | Bruno Waterfield, Brussels | Saturday, December 10, 2011

My comment:

I can't say I'm surprised by the hostility. Britain deserves it. Cameron especially. He has behaved like a spoilt child in a party. Maybe he has done wonders for his rich City friends, but he has done absolutely nothing for the British people.

It seems that Cameron's expensive, élitist education has done absolutely nothing for his understanding of European politics. He is a nobody now on the international political scene. He may well soon be a has-been, too.

He will come to regret this foolish decision. Unfortunately, the people of Britain will have to pay the highest price for his petulance. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Eurozone Countries Go It Alone with New Treaty that Excludes Britain
THE GUARDIAN: David Cameron loses bid to shield City of London from EU regulation and critics warn 'dangerous' move isolates UK


Britain is facing isolation in Europe after David Cameron vetoed a revision of the Lisbon treaty, prompting a majority of EU members to agree to draw up their own deal outside the architecture of the union.

In one of the most significant developments in Britain's 38-year membership of the EU, the British prime minister said early on Friday morning he could not allow a "treaty within a treaty" that would undermine the UK's position in the single market.

The move marked a victory for Nicolas Sarkozy, who had been pressing for an inter-governmental agreement among the 17 members of the eurozone to underpin tough new fiscal rules for the single currency. "We could not accept this," he said of Cameron's demands.

The French president, who has been pressing for the formalisation of a "two-speed Europe", was pleased on Friday when the number of EU member states indicating their support for a separate treaty reached 23. Britain was joined by Sweden, which rejected euro membership in a referendum, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who had hoped to agree a revision of the Lisbon treaty, said she believed the accord would stabilise the euro. "I have always said, the 17 states of the eurogroup have to regain credibility," she said. "And I believe with today's decisions this can and will be achieved."

Cameron wielded the British veto in the early hours of the morning after France succeeded in blocking a series of safeguards demanded by Britain to protect the City of London. Cameron had demanded that: » | Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent, in Brussels | Friday, December 09, 2011