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European Council

The debate comes at a crucial time for the eurozone and the wider European Union. Last month's European Council could and should have taken the vital decisions needed to stabilise the eurozone and boost growth and jobs in the EU, but it failed to do so. Monday's European Council is a vital chance to make up for previous lost opportunities, but I fear that the Prime Minister's diminished position in Europe has jeopardised the Government's ability to achieve and influence that. His walk-out at the previous European Council was a spectacular failure to engage with our European partners. We have a world-class diplomatic service, but the Prime Minister refused to use the talent, professionalism and experience of the Foreign Office and opted instead to let the Treasury run our foreign policy. He decided that keeping his Back Benchers happy was more important than helping our main export market resolve the eurozone crisis. He in fact followed the advice of the Foreign Secretary who, according to various reports, before the last European Council told him:"““If it is a choice between keeping the euro together or keeping the Conservative party together, it is in the national interest to keep the Conservative party together.””" That is the only thing that the Prime Minister did achieve, because he did not stop anything happening. His diplomatic defeatism was accurately summed up by the Deputy Prime Minister earlier this month, when he said:"““The language gets confusing. Veto suggests something was stopped. It was not stopped.””" I could not agree more.