Merkel, Cameron to thrash out EU budget differences

(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will try to narrow divisions that threaten to wreck a European Union budget deal and further isolate Britain from its biggest trading partner when she meets British Prime Minister David Cameron in London on Wednesday.

Cameron, under pressure after suffering a humiliating defeat in parliament at the hands of anti-European rebels in his Conservative Party, will have a working dinner with Merkel after threatening to veto the EU's seven-year 2014-20 spending plan.

There is growing anger among German officials over what they see as Britain's semi-detached stance towards the EU that could lead to London sliding out of a 27-nation union distrusted by public opinion and a sceptical media.

"This constant litany that we must do everything to keep Britain in the EU leads to a permanent state of blackmail by our British friends," former German EU ambassador Dietrich von Kyaw told a seminar of the Institute for European Politics in Berlin on Tuesday, venting a mood of exasperation among policymakers.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/06/uk-eu-budget-merkel-cameron-idUKBRE8A50TK20121106