Browse content similar to 09/12/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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I said before coming to Brussels that if I could not get adequate | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
safeguards for Britain in a venue European treaty then I would not | :00:19. | :00:23. | |
agree to it. What is on offer is not in the interests of Britain so | :00:23. | :00:33. | |
:00:33. | :00:43. | ||
Hello and welcome to the Daily Politics on Friday. So, after ten | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
hours of negotiation, the Prime Minister refuses to put pen to | :00:46. | :00:52. | |
paper and sign a new European-wide treaty to help save the euro. Mr | :00:52. | :00:57. | |
Cameron said it just was not in Britain's interests to do so. He | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
said it was a tough decision but the right one. Some accused the | :01:00. | :01:04. | |
Prime Minister of scuppering a full accord to appease his party. | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
President Sarkozy of France said Mr Cameron's demands had been | :01:07. | :01:14. | |
unacceptable. The 17 countries which use the euro will draw up a | :01:14. | :01:21. | |
new fiscal pact along with others who want to join. This morning, the | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
PM was still in the European family photo - just. But his critics say | :01:26. | :01:36. | |
:01:36. | :01:38. | ||
his actions leaves Britain isolated. And with me for the duration, | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
Alistair Heath from City AM and Rowenna Davies from the Guardian. | :01:42. | :01:47. | |
Welcome. So, Nick Clegg was fully behind the Prime Minister. Boris | :01:47. | :01:53. | |
Johnson says he played a blinder. And most Tory Euro-sceptics appear | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
to be rubbing their hands with glee. Not everyone is happy though. The | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
former Foreign Secretary, Lord Owen, says he has left the UK in a mess | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
and Labour accuse his isolationist approach as a sign of weakness, not | :02:05. | :02:12. | |
strength. So who is right and who is wrong? In a moment, we will hear | :02:12. | :02:21. | |
from our guests. But let's listen to what David Cameron had to say. | :02:21. | :02:27. | |
said but ball coming to Brussels that if I could not get adequate | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
safeguards for Britain in a new European treaty then I would not | :02:30. | :02:35. | |
agreed to it. What is on offer is not in the best interests of | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
Britain so I did not agree to it. Those countries that signed the | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
treaty and the agreements they have made tonight for co-ordinating | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
their budgets are making sure there isn't more surveillance of what | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
they do and the fiscal integration they need, we wish them well | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
because we want the eurozone to sort out its problems and achieve | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
the stability and growth at all of Europe - Britain included - needs. | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
We wish them well in that regard. The agreements they made tonight | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
may help them to do that. The key question for Britain was, do you | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
allow that to happen within the European Union treaties if you are | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
not happy with the safeguards you are given? I was not prepared to | :03:16. | :03:21. | |
agree that treaty and take it to Parliament in that way. That is why | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
are rejected signing this treaty today. The right thing for Britain, | :03:25. | :03:34. | |
a tough decision but the right one. Not many got sleep only just time | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
to change their shirts. Angela Merkel has a shirt as well. York | :03:39. | :03:46. | |
over the you? It is a total mess. - - your overdue. David Cameron | :03:46. | :03:54. | |
failed to get a financial deal in the eurozone. The second thing he | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
prepared to do was to provide a role for Britain which had | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
meaningful influence at will. We're going to become increasingly | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
isolated and that will be dangerous for this country. While this is | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
going on, his Conservative backbenchers and MPs are laughing. | :04:12. | :04:18. | |
It is a serious risk. What could he have done? He should have said, we | :04:18. | :04:25. | |
need to go forward with this deal. He threw his toys out of the plan | :04:25. | :04:31. | |
to -- the pram. They are doing it anyway? They will do it without | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
Britain having any influence at will. You think we should have | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
signed up to a balanced budget? What I think is, if David Cameron | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
had gone in... There are certain reasons why you think it is not a | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
good deal for Britain. If there was not going to be a greater growth | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
strategy. The only reason he was against it was partly because of | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
the banks and because he wanted to protect the City of London and | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
because his Euro-sceptic MPs did not want him to be a part of it. | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
think it was a great move from David Cameron. I did not think he | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
would be so decisive. This treaty had nothing to do with saving the | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
euro. It is harder for some countries to have a budget deficit. | :05:17. | :05:23. | |
He did not address fundamental issues which made the euro is not a | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
sustainable currency. The treaty is about growing the powers of the EU. | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
There are a whole series of policies that have nothing to do | :05:33. | :05:41. | |
with posting the single currency - wanting a Tobin tax, corporation | :05:41. | :05:47. | |
tax. Other eurozone countries did not want these things, not the UK. | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
That is the overdue you have given us. We will look into more detail | :05:52. | :05:58. | |
at what happened last night. The UK went into the negotiations last | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
night with the Prime Minister determined that any deal to | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
strengthen the eurozone should include safeguards for the UK. On | :06:05. | :06:08. | |
the table was a full-scale change of European Union treaties which | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
would have enshrined fiscal discipline on eurozone countries, | :06:10. | :06:15. | |
including common rules on taxation and budgets. In exchange for | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
signing up to this, David Cameron is reported to have demanded: Any | :06:20. | :06:23. | |
transfer of power from a national regulator to an EU regulator on | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
financial services would be subject to a veto. Banks should face a | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
higher capital requirement. The European Banking Authority should | :06:33. | :06:39. | |
The European Central Bank be rebuffed in its attempts to rule | :06:40. | :06:49. | |
:06:50. | :06:50. | ||
that euro-denominated transactions These safeguards, however, were | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
rejected by other European leaders, including the French President, | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
Nicolas Sarkozy, who said, David Cameron requested something which | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
we all considered was unacceptable At that point, the UK exercised its | :06:57. | :07:07. | |
:07:07. | :07:17. | ||
It led to 23 countries signing up to a new euro-plus group. Sweden | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
and the Czech Republic could soon join them, which leaves just the UK | :07:20. | :07:28. | |
and Hungary outside. In the last few minutes, the Hungarian leaders | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
have been talking about joining as well. They have indicated to the | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
BBC that they will also sign up. Well, you might think this is a | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
good day for the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, so let's ask him. He joins | :07:41. | :07:48. | |
me now from Brussels. Are you happy? On the face of it, puree. | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
When you think there tick, you realise he has actually gained | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
nothing. -- about it. His negotiating position was too weak. | :07:59. | :08:07. | |
If he had said quite give me this will we are leaving. My real worry | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
is that the financial markets are extremely vulnerable. Every time | :08:12. | :08:18. | |
the bond markets which for the euro has a problem, Mr Sarkozy will say | :08:18. | :08:25. | |
it is the City of London and let's regulate them even more. We find | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
ourselves in the European Union in a permanent voting minority and the | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
least popular we have ever been. what grounds can you claim that if | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
Mr Cameron had threatened to leave the EU that Mr Sarkozy would have | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
put a Cold War around the City of London? If you go into negotiations | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
in Brussels, you have to be very tough and carry a big stick or you | :08:49. | :08:55. | |
will not get anything. Mr Cameron went in thinking he would get a | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
deal and exercise the veto. If he things Euro-sceptic debate would | :09:00. | :09:07. | |
have been appeased by this, he would have been wrong. -- thinks. | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
On what grounds do you think the French would be agreed to a gold | :09:12. | :09:20. | |
walk around London? -- would agree. We have come out of this with | :09:20. | :09:26. | |
nothing. And not a single power has been returned. We are now in the | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
worst of all worlds. Thank you for joining us. So what do the Labour | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
Party make of all this? Joining me from Glasgow is the Shadow Foreign | :09:35. | :09:43. | |
Secretary, Douglas Alexander. What Ed Miliband had vetoed the deal? | :09:43. | :09:49. | |
would have negotiated a better deal for Britain. When he asks the | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
fundamental question, what has Britain gained at of the | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
positioning and posturing of David Cameron last night, the answer is | :09:57. | :10:04. | |
nothing? Britain is more isolated than it has been around the | :10:04. | :10:10. | |
European table than at any point in 35 years. It is a worrying time for | :10:11. | :10:16. | |
Britain. Despite the securing of some headlines, David Cameron | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
failed to secure the real interests of Britain last night. In terms of | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
the City of London, I do not think it serves the interests of the City | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
of London to be totally outside European financial regulation. | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
Being part of that has been part of the success of the city in the past. | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
If there were real concerns, there were other options available. An | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
emergency brake procedure up to inter-governmental level, where | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
Britain could exercise a level, that could be a way forward. David | :10:48. | :10:53. | |
Cameron reached a point in his mind, perhaps the boy got to Brussels, | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
where he realised he could not get what he wanted in the House of | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
Commons through his own backbenchers. If Nicolas Sarkozy | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
was being awkward, it would have been up to a British Prime Minister | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
not to have agreed. We would have started the negotiations in a | :11:13. | :11:20. | |
different place. What you have vetoed it in the end? We would have | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
offered a different position. had turned that down and said he | :11:25. | :11:30. | |
was not giving anything special to the City of London, it would you | :11:30. | :11:35. | |
have vetoed the deal? We have always been in a position of QMV in | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
relation to the city was it takes skill, judgment and disciplined to | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
get the outcome. Would you have vetoed the deal if the French had | :11:45. | :11:53. | |
said No vote -- help for the City? Let's be clear, there were other | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
options available to David Cameron. I cannot prejudge the reaction of | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
President Sarkozy to a different Prime Minister negotiating in a | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
different way. This issue will unravel for Cameron. He has | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
exercised this in the service of what and to gain what. What | :12:13. | :12:18. | |
additional protections had been secured for the City of London? The | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
answer is nothing. We're not in a room. We are not in the room | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
because you did not take us into the euro. We are where we are | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
because your government did not join them the eurozone. One of the | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
things we would have been seeking, which I do not sense David Cameron | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
asked for, would be to make sure Britain does have the seat at the | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
table. We are in a position where 25 European countries would be | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
discussing hugely important issues. Britain would not even have a voice | :12:49. | :12:55. | |
in those discussions. Why would the French give us a seat at the table? | :12:55. | :13:01. | |
They have told Mr Cameron to shut up. Do you think Mr Sarkozy would | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
listen to you? This has been the consequence of a shambolic and ill | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
judged negotiation strategy, stretching back months. David | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
Cameron was telling Chancellor Merkel he did not want to be in the | :13:13. | :13:20. | |
room. That is what he told her as recently as March. I am not | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
surprised that other European leaders are confused at the | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
position of David Cameron. Where were the Danes, the polls, the | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
Dutch, of the Swedes? They were natural allies in pass negotiations | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
but they were nowhere last night. - - past negotiations. We are more | :13:39. | :13:49. | |
:13:49. | :13:50. | ||
isolated than we needed to be. Earlier today, Alastair Campbell | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
tweeted: Got to admire Bill Cash. Just sat tight and waited for a | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
leader to come along and do his work for him. Will be excitedly | :13:56. | :14:03. | |
planning next steps. So, is he right? Let's speak to Mr Cash now. | :14:03. | :14:09. | |
I think he has done exactly the right thing. It is it all down to | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
you, is it? I am glad he has followed the advice that many | :14:13. | :14:19. | |
people have been trying to forgive him -- to give him. What does he do | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
next? The position basically is that the other member states threw | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
down the gauntlet. They wanted to move towards a political union. | :14:28. | :14:33. | |
What they came up with may well prove to be outside the treaty is | :14:33. | :14:39. | |
anyway. He is creating a pass towards for renegotiation of our | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
relationship with the European Union which has been well overdue. | :14:42. | :14:46. | |
The causes of the present troubles in the European Union come from the | :14:46. | :14:52. | |
structure of the treaties and over- regulation. You save for | :14:52. | :15:02. | |
:15:02. | :15:02. | ||
renegotiation is a euphemism for actually now a path which we have | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
to follow, which will actually end up by our entering into a new | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
relationship and looking outwards to the rest of the world. Why do | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
you think the Germans or the French had any interest in creating a new | :15:14. | :15:20. | |
relationship for Britain? They are more likely to say, either accept | :15:20. | :15:27. | |
it as it is, or get out? That may well be the end game. I am saying | :15:27. | :15:33. | |
that at this juncture he has done the right thing. You would like | :15:33. | :15:40. | |
that endgame, wouldn't you? believe we have reached... I have | :15:41. | :15:47. | |
seen an historic turning point. Just say it pulls up I want to get | :15:47. | :15:54. | |
out. Get it off your chest. I know you want me to say it. There are | :15:54. | :15:57. | |
several months ahead of renegotiation to take place. We | :15:57. | :16:03. | |
have not seen a detail yet. We will hear on Monday when he comes back | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
from the summit in the House of Commons. It is an historic moment | :16:07. | :16:17. | |
:16:17. | :16:18. | ||
for Britain and the Conservative I could not get Mr Alexander to say | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
he would have vetoed the deal, and I cannot get Mr Cash to say what he | :16:22. | :16:29. | |
really thinks. Anyway, it looks like an number of the Liberal | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
Democrat partners in the government will have a few choice words to say. | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
Joining me, the former chairman of the Conservative Party, Norman | :16:36. | :16:44. | |
Fowler, and the chair of the European Parliament Economic and | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
Monetary Affairs Committee, Sharon Bowles. So, this has got Lib Dem | :16:48. | :16:55. | |
support? He negotiated from the standpoint that was agreed with the | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
Liberal Democrats to try and do something for the City. I have to | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
say, that was against my advice, because I could tell you that | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
nothing like that would ever have been on the cards, because | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
financial services are part of the single market. So, we should have | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
put the financial services into that basket. This is a simple | :17:17. | :17:23. | |
question which demands a simple answer - does what Mr Cameron has | :17:23. | :17:32. | |
done it in Brussels have Lib Dem support? I think because he stuck | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
within the agreed lines, then probably the Lib Dems are very | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
disappointed, but they will have to concede that it was a dangerous | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
game, and he played and lost. Cameron could not have done | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
anything else and held his party together, could he? No, I think | :17:48. | :17:53. | |
that's right. If you go back to yesterday, we were being told by | :17:53. | :17:56. | |
some Euro-sceptic MPs that he was going to come back like Chamberlain, | :17:56. | :18:02. | |
with a worthless piece of paper. That hasn't happened. That Tory MP | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
owes David Cameron an apology, I would suggest. I would have thought | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
so, and I would think owes us a piece of silence on this debate. | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
The it is the first bit of good news I have heard all morning. I | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
think what David Cameron did his, he went with an agenda, France were | :18:19. | :18:23. | |
not prepared to negotiate on it at all, not on any bit of it, and he | :18:23. | :18:32. | |
said no. The Liberal Democrats, I heard the equivocation on your side, | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
I heard what Mr Alexander was saying, I'm still no clearer on | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
what Labour Party policy is on this. I think Cameron has done exactly | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
the right thing. And I do not come from a Euro-sceptic background. I | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
spent most of the early 1990s fighting on Maastricht. I remember | :18:51. | :18:58. | |
that well, I was in the trenches, covering you. Don't the Lib Dems | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
and sound a bit divided? I am confused by both. I thought David | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
Cameron was supposed to be a strong leader, who could control his | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
backbenchers. Who told you that? That was what his reputation was | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
supposed to be. But obviously not. It is interesting because we are | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
seeing a change in the perception of David Cameron, as someone who | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
was quite reactionary and actually quite weak. Absolutely totally | :19:23. | :19:30. | |
wrong on that. As I have said, I am not a Euro-sceptic, in the sense | :19:30. | :19:35. | |
that bill Cash is a Euro-sceptic. What you have found, I would be | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
amazed if there are any in the Conservative Party, in my part of | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
the party, who are against what he has done. It is not as if he has | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
been pushed from behind by some curious collection. Coming back to | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
the Lib Dems, Mr Cameron cannot act alone, he's in coalition, I would | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
suggest there is a fair chance, maybe higher than that, that this | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
is going to cause your property real problems, and divide it quite | :20:01. | :20:08. | |
deeply? -- your party. Well, there may be problems. Looking at it from | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
a European angle, I think it was something which was never going to | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
be a possibility for us to negotiate, and therefore the | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
outcome was predetermined. What about your leader? He agreed to it | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
because it was a compromise, it moved a long way from where it | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
might have been. Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, Lord Oakeshott, who seems to | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
speak for everybody these days, they are not happy. No, I think the | :20:33. | :20:40. | |
way in which we are isolated now, this is very damaging. We have not | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
maintained the status quo in financial services. As I said, | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
that's the problem, if you play and lose, you're worse off. Watcher | :20:49. | :20:54. | |
David Cameron do now? That is exactly the point. He actually went | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
in with very few demands, very weak demands, and he got nothing. This | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
suggests to me there is nothing he can get from the EU. They're on a | :21:02. | :21:07. | |
particular course, they will go a certain way, they want to integrate, | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
harmonise and centralised. But that fundamentally changes our | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
relationship. But that's true whoever was in power. Whoever was | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
the government... I agree, I think it would have been exactly the same | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
had Labour been in power. We have been at this crossroads for years, | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
I believe, trying to delay it. Either you choose to go completely | :21:29. | :21:35. | |
in the EU, with the euro, total union, or you do not. You have got | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
to make that choice. At some point the UK was going to have to make | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
that choice, because Whiteley we did not join the euro a few years | :21:43. | :21:49. | |
ago, under Labour. Is there any credence to this idea, which Bill | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
Cash was mentioning, that the British should go for a fundamental | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
renegotiation of our relationship? If I was going to go into | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
negotiations, I'm not sure I would choose this moment to go back to | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
Europe and say, we want to talk about employment laws and one of | :22:03. | :22:10. | |
those things. There's an awful lot of play still to be had. We talk as | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
if the 17, who have already agreed upon everything... There is a | :22:14. | :22:19. | |
helluva lot of discussion and negotiation which has got to go on. | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
Germany's view is not going to be the same, I suspect, as a number of | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
other countries, who are more on the fringe of Europe. We should not | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
take for granted that all 17, plus the other six, that they go | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
national parlour to -- they go national parliaments are going to | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
accept that they can never have a deficit of more than 3%, that their | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
budget will have to be submitted to Brussels before it can be approved, | :22:44. | :22:52. | |
that there will be an economic Planning Commission... Why would | :22:52. | :22:58. | |
people signed up to that, including countries like Ireland? If I was | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
another country inside the euro, I would have serious concerns with | :23:01. | :23:06. | |
this treaty, and how it affects our national sovereignty. But these | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
concerns do not apply to Britain. For us, it was about whether we | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
want to accept more financial regulation of the city, and we said | :23:13. | :23:18. | |
no. That to me sounds surprising, didn't we just have a financial | :23:18. | :23:23. | |
crash? It is much more profound than that. Cameron was actually | :23:23. | :23:28. | |
going in asking for the power to regulate the City more heavily than | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
the EU once, in the key area of capital requirements. So it is not | :23:32. | :23:37. | |
as simple as he himself has led us to believe. He was in favour of the | :23:37. | :23:42. | |
Tobin tax, and not relocating outside the City. But he was asking | :23:42. | :23:46. | |
for unanimity on various things which previously had been done by | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
qualified majority voting, which, under the treaty, would have passed | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
us that. That's why it was never going to be the case. Will be look | :23:54. | :23:59. | |
back in history and see this as the day that Britain began a long but | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
inevitable withdrawal from Europe? I think we could look back, but I | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
think there is an awful lot of play still to be had, and it is | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
extremely difficult to forecast. But what it does it is, it | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
highlights that we have got a different concept, at least the | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
Conservative Party has got an entirely different concept on what | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
Europe is about. We do not want a centralised Europe, we have never | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
made any secret about that, and we're not going to go ahead on a | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
position where we are being given that centralised Europe. Stick with | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
us, we have locked down the studio, you cannot leave just yet. We are | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
going to get some thoughts from our political correspondent Iain Watson, | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
who has been following events in Brussels overnight. He's still | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
awake, yes, there are he is, a breathing, smiling, sentient human | :24:46. | :24:54. | |
being, and a BBC correspondent. Mr Watson, what is the mood in the | :24:54. | :25:00. | |
British camp this morning, other than exhaustion? Certainly, it is | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
exhausted. I think the mood is that Britain did the best it could under | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
the circumstances. Basically, what I am picking up here is that there | :25:08. | :25:10. | |
was quite a lot of irritation with the British position, because they | :25:10. | :25:16. | |
are not in the single currency. To choose one fairly colourful | :25:16. | :25:25. | |
continental phrase, it was said that David Cameron wants to bring | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
along, Surrey, he wants to join the wife-swapping party, without | :25:29. | :25:38. | |
bringing along his own wife to the party. Given that is the case, what | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
seem to be innocuous demands to the rest of us, about protecting the | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
financial services, protecting the City of London, has been | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
interpreted here as driving a coach and horses through the single | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
market. I think it is a big miscalculation, actually. While the | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
French were very sceptical towards Britain, the Germans and others | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
would make compromises. In that sense, a brave face is being put on | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
it in the British camp. But David Cameron is saying, different | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
countries can do things at different speeds, why not? I | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
suppose this time, it is 25, even 26 countries doing one thing, and | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
Britain doing another. Although he's getting a lot of plaudits from | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
some Euro-sceptic MPs back in London, for not signing up to this | :26:24. | :26:30. | |
deal, which he found an acceptable, at the same time, when I was asking | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
about this at the press conference, he did admit there were some risks | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
for Britain in this, and he said it was very important to make sure | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
that the European institutions serve all 27 members, not just this | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
large inner core. Go and have another coffee, thanks for joining | :26:46. | :26:51. | |
us. This may be stupid, I'm actually not quite sure what all | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
this is about. Last time I looked, we had a major European sovereign | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
debt crisis, which needed funding now, which needed the ECB to do | :27:00. | :27:06. | |
something, to print money ought to do eurobonds, which needed the | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
Europeans to come up with a massive bail-out fund - none of this has | :27:10. | :27:15. | |
been talk about. What's happening? Exactly, nothing really is | :27:15. | :27:18. | |
happening. This is really a revamped version of the stability | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
and growth package, which was agreed during the Maastricht treaty, | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
which was to be responsible when it came to fiscal policy. So what this | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
is now saying is, actually, we're going to have a bit of a harsher | :27:29. | :27:33. | |
system, and therefore, everything will be sorted. It means the | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
European Central Bank will be relaxed and will be willing to buy | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
lots of European bonds. But it has already said, yesterday, it is not | :27:40. | :27:48. | |
going to do that. It was the president of the European Central | :27:48. | :27:51. | |
Bank who said, we are not doing eurobonds, we are not going to be a | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
lender of last resort to governments, and we are not even | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
going to shovel our money around the back door to the IMF, so they | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
can hand it out. I have to say, I never thought the ECB was going to | :28:05. | :28:10. | |
jump in very quickly, and the rally that we had following his remarks | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
in the European Parliament last week, I thought that people were | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
misunderstanding what he was saying. I think they still will be active | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
in the secondary bond market. They have increased the lending lines to | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
banks. It is certainly the lender of last resort to banks, that's for | :28:26. | :28:31. | |
sure. And ultimately, they can accept a lot more things on | :28:31. | :28:38. | |
repurchase, and they can therefore buy sovereign bonds, or re-purchase | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
sovereign bonds in that way. not quite what Mr Sarkozy was | :28:42. | :28:48. | |
talking about. No. We will have to leave it there. Thank you all. | :28:48. | :28:52. |