Tory plans to renegotiate terms of EU membership get boost from Berlin

British prime minister David Cameron has received a highly significant boost to his campaign to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership after Berlin said that any EU treaty change must protect the interests of non-euro zone members.

In a sign of German chancellor Angela Merkel's determination to keep Britain in the EU, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble has written an article in the Financial Times together with the British chancellor George Osborne to say that any treaty change must "guarantee fairness" for countries outside the euro zone.

The article confirms the signals from Berlin that Germany is keen to provide assurances to Britain.

German officials said Dr Merkel acknowledged the need to guarantee that the 10 EU countries outside the euro zone could not be outvoted in negotiations on the single market by the 18 euro countries.

The rules of the single market are decided by “qualified majority voting”, which means that the so-called “euro-outs” could be outvoted by the euro zone members.

Disadvantage
In their joint article, Mr Osborne and Mr Schäuble write: "As the euro area continues to integrate, it is important that countries outside the euro area are not at a systematic disadvantage in the EU.

“So future EU reform and treaty change must include reform of the governance framework to put euro area integration on a sound legal basis and guarantee fairness for those EU countries inside the single market but outside the single currency.”

The message from Berlin is designed to assure Britain after Mr Schäuble spoke on Thursday of the need for treaty change to underpin new governance arrangements for the euro zone. He suggested this could involve a euro zone parliament.

Win
Mats Persson, director of the Open Europe think tank, told the FT that the intervention by Berlin marked "a substantial win for Osborne and Cameron". Mr Persson added: "This is the first time treaty changes for further euro zone integration and safeguarding the rights of non-euro countries have been linked by senior German and UK figures."

The Guardian reported on the eve of Dr Merkel's visit to London last month that Berlin was prepared to offer assurances that the non-euro zone members would not be outvoted. A Berlin official was quoted as saying: "Germany is sympathetic to British demand for assurances of non-discrimination in single market given euro zone integration."

During her visit to London Dr Merkel said a deal was doable: “I firmly believe that what we are discussing here is feasible . . . If one wants Britain to remain in the EU, which is what I want, if one at the same time wants a competitive union that generates growth, one can find common solutions.” – (Guardian service)