Cameron's lonely battle at EU summit
| Paris
British Prime Minister David Cameron is facing one of the most public defeats of his career in his opposition to whom will next head the European Commission.
His insistence that Jean-Claude Juncker is the wrong man for the job, despite the fact that most European Union leaders have rallied around the former prime minister of Luxembourg, has left Mr. Cameron isolated. Germany's聽Die Welt newspaper labeled him 鈥渢he loneliest man in Europe.鈥�
Heading into the EU summit today, where the nomination of Mr. Juncker could be sealed, Cameron did not back down, but pushed even harder, positioning himself for a humiliating setback.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the wrong person,鈥� Cameron said in Brussels, insisting that he was standing on principle. 鈥淛ean-Claude Juncker has been at the heart of the project to increase the power of Brussels and reduce the power of nation states for his entire working life. He鈥檚 not the right person to take this organization forward.鈥�
But as the Monitor wrote yesterday, the debate over Juncker鈥檚 nomination, which has become the talk of the town in European capitals, has implications far beyond just Cameron himself.
It聽鈥� has institutional and political implications for the EU. The showdown over his candidacy is testing the rules of democracy in Europe, and could ultimately harm the EU by putting Britain a step closer to leaving the organization.鈥澛�
Under pressure from euroskeptics in Britain who handily won 聽European parliamentary elections in May, Cameron has promised Britons that he will push to reform the EU and then hold a referendum in 2017 (if he鈥檚 re-elected in 2015) on whether they want to remain part of the 28-member bloc. He believes that Juncker stands in the way of reform that he says the EU desperately needs.
But as John Kornblum, the former US ambassador of Germany, said, if Cameron's intransigence hurts him on the Continent, it also could claim another victim: German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany is much stronger with Britain as an EU member.
鈥淐ameron is out there all by himself, and it hurts Merkel, too,鈥� says Mr. Kornblum said. 鈥淭hey are each in a very uncomfortable position and they can鈥檛 get themselves out.鈥�
