British Prime Minister David Cameron has warned he would no longer be able to guarantee that Britain would remain a member of the European Union if European leaders elect Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission chief, Germany's Spiegel said.
The European Commission president is selected by EU leaders but must be approved by the assembly, where Euroskeptics from the right made gains in last week's election. The European People's Party, which won the most seats in the vote, had chosen Juncker, Luxembourg's ex-prime minister, as their candidate.
In a copy of the article seen before its publication, Spiegel said Cameron had explained on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Tuesday that if Juncker became commission president, he would no longer be able to ensure Britain's continued EU membership. Participants understood Cameron's comments to mean that a majority vote for Juncker could destabilize his government to the extent that an "in-out" referendum would have to be brought forward. That in turn, they understood, would most likely lead to the British people voting to quit the EU, it said.
The magazine said Cameron, who regards Juncker as too federalist and likely to damage his hopes of reforming Britain's EU ties, dismissed the candidate during a recess with the words: "A face from the '80s can't solve the problems of the next five years."
Cameron has promised to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership and — if his Conservatives win a 2015 national election — to hold a referendum by the end of 2017 on whether or not to remain part of the EU.
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