Wendy WilliamsIN a groundbreaking move British Prime Minister David Cameron has broken away from Europe by refusing to sign a treaty to save the single currency.
The controversial move – that followed 10 hours of talks last night – has sparked debate over Britain’s future in the European Union and caused a standoff with German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Nicolas Sarkozy, French president.
“I really don’t believe David Cameron was ever with us at the table,” Merkel said.
And Sarkozy insisted Cameron had made ‘unacceptable’ demands.
The news has also been met with shock across Spain with people questioning what it means for the future of the European Union and the immediate debt crisis.
However Diego Lopez Garrido, Spain’s secretary of state to the EU, has been trying to put a positive spin on the talks in Brussels.
He said it was regrettable not to have Britain on side it but “better a deal between 23 member states than nothing.”
It comes just days after PM-elect Mariano Rajoy gave a speech reaffirming his commitment to the Euro project and arguing he could enact the necessary reforms to keep Spain an integral part of it.
The remaining 26 member states, including Spain, are now moving ahead with their own agreement, tying their finances together in a last ditch effort to solve the eurozone debt crisis and prevent the implosion of the single currency.
Meanwhile Cameron said he wished them well but insisted that what he decided was ‘the right thing for Britain – a tough decision but the right one’.
“My judgment was that what was on offer just wasn’t good enough for Britain. It’s better to allow those countries to do their own thing on their own,” he said.
Certainly the veto has been hailed by jubilant Tory eurosceptics.
And London Mayor Boris Johnson remarked that the Prime Minister had ‘played a blinder’.
However Labour leader Ed Miliband accused the Prime Minister of ‘letting down the country.’
“It makes us marginal to the big decisions on Europe. It is no way to run a foreign policy,” he said.
Cameron needs to gain the personal strength to say, “You can send us a Bill…. we in the UK will NOT pay it”.