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Nick Clegg plots to sink David Cameron EU treaty veto

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/294716/Nick-Clegg-plots-to-sink-David-Cameron-EU-treaty-veto

Nick Clegg claimed Britain could still join a deal designed to shore up the euro - January 10,2012 - By Macer Hall Political Editor

NICK Clegg has sparked fury among Tory MPs by insisting David Cameron’s EU treaty veto was only a “temporary breach” with Brussels. Mr Clegg claimed Britain could still join a deal designed to shore up the euro by “folding” euro-zone financial measures into current EU treaties. He stirred further anger by suggesting British taxpayers will “of course” pour billions more into IMF bailouts.

He made his remarks at a mini- summit of European Lib Dem leaders and EU commissioners at his Admiralty House base in London yesterday. Wellingborough Tory MP Peter Bone said: “It is typical of how Eurocrats work. When a treaty is vetoed they ignore it and look for a behind-the-scenes way of forcing it through. “It is absolutely appalling that the Deputy Prime Minister is going behind the back of the Prime Minister to work with unelected European bureaucrats on circumventing the wishes of the British Government.

“He lives in a fantasy land where everything in the EU is wonderful, but that is not the view of the British people.” Douglas Carswell, Tory MP for Clacton, said Mr Clegg’s views parrotted those of Whitehall mandarins desperate to re-enter talks in Brussels. He said he feared Mr Cameron’s veto could be in danger but poured scorn on Mr Clegg’s desire to increase Britain’s contribution to the IMF.

“The last time they tried they were down to 20-something votes,” he said. Mark Reckless, Tory MP for Rochester and Strood, said: “It looks like Nick Clegg is freelancing. Foreign policy is set by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary.” At the meeting Mr Clegg signed a pledge to press for a back-door solution. He said the deal Mr Cameron had vetoed “should, over time, be folded into the existing EU treaties”, adding “We all see this as a kind of temporary arrangement rather than one that creates a permanent breach in the EU.”

He denied the rejection of the treaty was a veto and said he backed extra cash for the IMF beyond £10billion agreed last year, provided it was to help “countries and not currencies”. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in Berlin yesterday over fears that Greece’s debts are out of control, threatening the survival of the euro.