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Cameron looking increasingly isolated in EU battle

19 June 2014 02:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. British Prime Minister David Cameron looked increasingly isolated on Wednesday in his drive to prevent Jean-Claude Juncker becoming head of the European Commission, with potential allies softening their opposition, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Cameron said on Tuesday he would "fight right to the end" against the principle of giving the most powerful job in the EU to the candidate of the strongest party in last month's European Parliament elections.

Asked whether the comment acknowledged likely defeat, a senior British official said in Brussels: "The prime minister is certainly not throwing in the towel about next week.

"You never give up on a European negotiation. I've seen all sorts of twists and turns."

Britain has no veto over the decision, which would be subject to a qualified majority if it came to a vote. Cameron has failed to win over new allies despite intensive efforts to woo Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, whom he telephoned again on Wednesday.

Renzi, who also met European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, has not publicly endorsed a candidate and is making his support conditional on changes in the euro zone's economic policy mix to favor pro-growth policies.

"For us, the political priorities come before the names," Sandro Gozi, his undersecretary in charge of European Affairs, told Reuters after that meeting. "Italy wants a substantial change in European policies compared with the past."

EU diplomats said Juncker, a center-right former Luxembourg prime minister and veteran EU deal broker, was the only name on the table and looked increasingly likely to be nominated at a June 26-27 leaders summit.

Without Italy, Cameron is far from having a blocking minority of states representing 38 percent of the EU population. Some British diplomats are now arguing that even if London is alone, it would go against the European spirit to outvote it.

"Now everybody wants to get this out of the way except Cameron. At the end, Cameron might be alone," the European affairs adviser to one continental prime minister told Reuters.