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Both Germany and France this month snubbed Britain’s “balance of competences” study, which is examining whether powers should flow back from Brussels. Mr Cameron insisted he did not want to present his fellow leaders with a list of British demands, but instead wanted to focus on how to ensure the bloc’s competitiveness in the “global race”.
In Paris, where a domestic political crisis, the poor state of the economy and the eurozone’s problems are weighing heavily on Mr Hollande’s Socialist government, there is barely disguised disdain for Mr Cameron’s push for a renegotiation of EU powers.
Meanwhile, Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, has left little doubt that his country and the UK have not much in common in their approach to the EU. Mr Rajoy used a news conference on Monday to press the case for greater integration.
Like so many troubled eurozone nations, Spain sees little benefit in Mr Cameron’s campaign for repatriation of powers from Brussels to EU states. For Madrid, the lesson of the past year is that it can only solve its economic and financial problems through deeper ties with its European partners.
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