United Kingdom
Related: About this forumUK 'threatens to quit EU over presidency' - Der Spiegel
German magazine Der Spiegel says British PM David Cameron warned that the UK could leave the EU if Luxembourg ex-PM Jean-Claude Juncker became president of the European Commission.
It reported Mr Cameron as saying that the appointment could destabilise his government, which may bring forward referendum plans on EU membership.
Downing Street has not yet commented.
Mr Juncker's European People's Party won the largest number of seats in the European parliament in the May polls.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27653359
muriel_volestrangler
(101,158 posts)He just seems to imply there is a 'reformer' waiting for the post, somewhere. This looks more like a bit of extortion to me - "lovely EU you've got here, shame if anything happens to it. Me? I'm a reasonable man, but you wouldn't believe some of those people in my party - they're raring to trash this place. Now, if you could give me a political victory, after embarrassingly coming in 3rd place in the latest elections, I might be able to hold them back..."
Anarcho-Socialist
(9,601 posts)For Britain to leave the EU, it would be a revolutionary break with US foreign policy. The US is deeply enthusiastic about UK membership of the EU (something ignored by Tory and UKIP Eurosceptics, who are often die-hard Atlanticists) and would see British withdrawal as going against US foreign policy objectives.
The second issue here is the City. While Cameron wants to protect the City's share of finance trade within the EU, if he takes the ball home through withdrawal, the UK would see transnational, US and even British finance capital leave the City and transplant itself in another EU territory such as Ireland.
Cameron is looking for some freebies from Merkel to placate his right. Merkel knows full well that she doesn't need to give Cameron anything.