Don’t push Britain towards exit from Europe, MPs warn Angela Merkel

 
Negotiations: German Chancellor Angela Merkel
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MPs today warned Germany it will “push Britain towards the exit door” if it blocks David Cameron’s bid to scrap the goal of “ever-closer union” in Europe.

They issued the warning as German Chancellor Angela Merkel comes under pressure to distance herself from the Prime Minister’s attempts to renegotiate Britain’s EU relationship.

Mr Cameron is insisting the phrase “ever-closer union” must no longer apply to Britain as part of new arrangements to be put to the British people in a referendum in 2017 if the Conservatives win the next election.

But senior figures in Germany’s Centre-Left Social Democratic Party, which is in negotiations with Ms Merkel’s Centre-Right Christian Democrats to form a “grand coalition”, are vowing to defend the key principle of bringing Europe together.

Axel Schaefer, deputy chairman of the party’s parliamentary group, voiced his opposition to Mr Cameron’s aim, according to The Times.

But Eurosceptic MPs stressed if Germany scuppers Mr Cameron’s plan to repatriate powers from Brussels, it would make it more likely that Britain would leave the EU.

Romford Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell said: “If Germany insists on keeping the ‘ever-closer union’ phrase, that will push Britain towards the EU exit door.” Mr Cameron needed to win a “convincing” deal on loosening Britain’s relationship with the EU or the British people would conclude the reforms were inadequate, he added.

Fellow Eurosceptic MP Douglas Carswell emphasised: “The rest of Europe can either help Dave get his funky, new deal or we leave.

“They are now negotiating with the whole of the British people. If they insist that whatever happens we have to sign up to ‘ever-closer union’, it makes my job easier in a referendum to try to persuade people that we should leave.”

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