Cameron To Play Pivotal Role In Crunch Summit

The Prime Minister is expected to play a pivotal role in Thursday's European Summit, where European leaders will be attempting to save the eurozone from failure.

David Cameron's position on Europe has come under heavy fire from within his own party in recent days as he tries to quell the hard-line Eurosceptics on his backbench and within his cabinet with claims he will use the vital summit to further Britains interests and claw back powers to the UK.

Among key proposals on the agenda at the meeting in Brussels, is how to enforce budgetary discipline with automatic penalties for eurozone nations that fail to meet a number of economic requirements, such as debt levels and banking security.

In what some are interpreting as a warning shot to the British PM's hard-line, French Europe Minister Jean Leonetti said on Wednesday that the single currency and the EU itself are under threat if leaders fail to agree changes to European treaties.

The changes could see a reduction in the number of member states operating the single currency and punitive sanctions for nonconforming members in the future.

This week alone has proved difficult for Mr Cameron as one of his cabinet ministers compromised the Government's position on the EU after saying a UK referendum on Europe could be inevitable if EU leaders try to revise the treaties.

During an interview with the Spectator, published on Wednesday, Northern Ireland secretary and leading Eurosceptic, Owen Paterson, swept the legs from David Cameron's precarious stance of repatriating powers from the European Union as it battles with the debt crisis, saying there would be "huge pressure" for a referendum.

Paterson told the magazine's political editor: "If there was a major fundamental change in our relationship, emerging from the creation of a new bloc, which would be effectively a new country from which we were excluded, then I think inevitably there would be huge pressure for a referendum."

"This isn't going to happen immediately because these negotiations are going to take some months. But I think down the road that is inevitable."

The Prime Minister had already been dealt a blow by his Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke, who said that any repatriation of powers back to the UK was unlikely.

Meanwhile, Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary, Douglas Alexander, accused the PM of spending too much time "negotiating with his own backbenchers" and spending too little fighting for Britain's interests in Europe.

"The Government are still unable to confirm if any new resources are being allocated to the task of assessing the balance of powers between Britain and the EU or even how many civil servants are working on this particular issue," Mr Alexander said.

(DW)