BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron's gamble to claw back a eurosceptic votes looks set to fail today as support disappears from allies.
Mr Cameron has fought an increasingly belligerent battle to block the Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker from becoming the next head of the European Union Commission. With EU leaders meeting today that battle looks all but certain to end in failure and potentially cause long term damage to British influence within the 28 nation bloc.
With more than 20 years experience in politics, holding influential posts in the EU among others, and as the primary candidate from the largest group within the parliament on paper Mr Juncker's qualifications for the role are indisputable.
Mr Cameron fears, however, that his "pro-federalist" stance ignores the "pro-reform" message delivered by voters in May's elections.
As well as drawing criticism from fellow European Leaders Mr Cameron's refusal to back down and reach a compromise has drawn the ire of stalwarts in his own government.
Pro-Europe Conservative Kenneth Clarke told the BBC that while Mr Juncker was “not the most vigorous reformer”, he was not an “arch-villain”.
"No one knows what he’s supposed to have done wrong,” Mr Clarke said.
Business Secretary Vincent Cable added his voice to the condemnation claiming that Mr Cameron's tactics "had not helped Britain punch it's weight in Europe."
The ongoing debate has caused tensions to run high among leaders, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel becoming increasingly exasperated by the British position.
"We have to have a majority vote. It's not a drama if we decide by qualified majorities only," she said during a speech in Berlin this week . "Germany supports Jean-Claude Juncker."
Mr Cameron may have hoped that the increase in anti-Europe feeling among MEP's may have helped his cause. These hopes have been dashed by UKIP MEP, an leader of the right wing Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group (EFD), Nigel Farage.
“The prime minister has gone to war over the appointment of the next commission president -- a war that he’s clearly going to lose,” Mr Farage told Bloomberg news agency.
"There is an increasingly bad relationship between Britain’s leaders and the leaders of many other European countries
“UKIP winning the European elections is putting huge pressure on Mr. Cameron’s position,” Farage said. “In terms of the United Kingdom being able potentially to renegotiate anything of significance, the appointment of Juncker makes that look far less likely.”
As Mr Cameron seeks ever more desperate ways to stop the appointment, including dredging up obscure 1960's decrees to protect "national interests" a Downing Street source has warned that there will be "consequences" if Mr Juncker is confirmed.
“It is a big issue and, if it happens, we do not want to minimise it,” the source said.
“The Prime Minister has been reflecting a great deal on it, there have been a lot of discussions and in terms of his own agenda, the reforms he wants to see in the EU, this is a significant step in the wrong direction.”
For his part Mr Juncker, whose centre right European People's Party won 28 per cent in the parliamentary vote, has remained relatively detached from the debate, other than to say one of his priorities as commission president would be to find a “fair deal” for Britain on its relationship with the EU, saying “we have to do this if we want to keep the U.K. within the European Union -- which I would like to do.”
With defeat looking set to be inevitable the far reaching consequences of the Prime Minister's desperate ploy to appeal to eurosceptics are yet to be seen. What seems certain, however, is that for the time being Britain will be seen as the petulant child of the EU throwing a tantrum when it doesn't get its own way.
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