The City of London has raised deep concerns over David Cameron’s strategy in Europe, warning that the prime minister’s wishlist of “safeguards” in December could actually have damaged its standing as Europe’s financial center.
The differences over Britain’s diplomatic priorities, first aired earlier this year, have taken on renewed significance just days ahead of a key European Union summit as Mr Cameron prepares a fresh list of demands for legal protections if a European “banking union” were formed.
Britain rejected a new EU fiscal treaty in December after Mr Cameron failed to win safeguards for the EU single market for financial services – demands France derided as an unacceptable “opt-out” for the City.
But senior representatives of Britain’s financial center later told Treasury ministers that most of the “protocol” on financial services was misguided or unnecessary and liable to backfire, according to an internal City of London Corporation analysis of Mr Cameron’s wishlist seen by the Financial Times.
With a European summit in Brussels beginning on Thursday, Mr Cameron is working more closely with the City this time to co-ordinate positions and to ensure that a proposed banking union does not undermine Britain’s access to a EU single market.
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