Europe’s new iron curtain

The last 24 hours have yielded no agreement in Europe, and they have seen David Cameron’s ambitions decline (he appears resigned to the fact that EU spending will not be limited to 886bn euros, his original objective); but they have also demonstrated that Britain is far from alone at the diplomatic table. David Cameron has been able to forge pragmatic alliances and exert diplomatic pressure precisely. For example, his latest tactic at the budget discussions is to appeal to the downtrodden nations of southern Europe by insisting that the EU’s bureaucracy take its own medicine by raising retirement age and cutting jobs and reducing the final salary pension cap. The EU says that such changes would be ‘legally difficult’; the British government retorts that these proposals are not dramatic and that most European governments have already implemented them.

Cameron is not afraid to antagonise; indeed, he can see that much is to be gained by confrontation.