A DEFEAT FOR BRITAIN OR A DEFEAT FOR EUROPE OR BOTH ???

All the signs are that Prime Minister David Cameron will indeed be beaten, defeated, outvoted and outgunned as Mr. Juncker gets the nod today as the next President of the European Commission.

Many political battles are ugly — but toss in 28 nations, high unemployment, angry voters and a skeptical Britain and the fight over the European Union's chief executive may have profound consequences.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has set himself up for a stinging defeat as his vocal campaign to block the front-runner for the top EU job, former Luxembourg prime minister and longtime Brussels insider Jean-Claude Juncker, failed to gain traction.

Many fear that an increasingly isolated Britain could even choose to leave the bloc something that has never happened in the EU's history.

Prime Minister David Cameron views the EU "too big, too bossy and too interfering" and sought to block Juncker, whom he sees as the embodiment of a pro-integration, consensus-favoring, empire -building Brussels clique that won't return power to member nations.
Prime Minister David Cameron says the strong results last month for euroskeptic and anti-immigration parties in European Parliament elections in several EU countries, including France and Britain, were a wake-up call that the bloc "must either change or accept further decline." However, his anti-Juncker campaign has backfired, raising pressure on a leader who already has pledged to hold a referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EU and who faces strong competition from a rising anti-EU party. Prime Minister David Cameron has maneuvered himself into a corner. His strategy hasn't worked and it has added to the process of alienation between the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union. He was right to take the position he did, but the way it's been done, unfortunately, has not helped Britain punch its weight in Europe.

The Prime Minister is haunted both by increasingly euroskeptic lawmakers of his Conservative party and the rising UK Independence Party, which advocates leaving the EU. He has vowed to renegotiate his country's relationship with the EU, seeking to diminish the power of bureaucrats in Brussels, before holding a referendum on Britain's EU membership in 2017, provided he wins re-election next year.

This will be a major issue overshadowing the new Commission: Can the EU deliver something to Cameron that will make it easier for him to make the case for being in the EU? It's hard to say how much the rest of Europe will be ready to give.

Options for Prime Minister David Cameron

1. He could take being outvoted on the chin, hope for some consolation prize and pray that, next time, EU leaders will help him to deliver change. This is a risky approach.

2. He could send a direct message to his fellow leaders that he is not just in favour of EU reform but also believes that it is fundamental to the UK’s continued membership. Cameron could say that if the EU continues in the manner of Juncker’s appointment he will have no choice but to advocate an Out vote. This would be interpreted as a threat, and be greeted by a wall of hostility in Brussels but it would have the benefit of being true. It is not an idle threat. Cameron’s plan to base his referendum on the potential for EU reform was the right one, and one from which he cannot back down. Nor can he back the UK’s membership come what may. Cameron has to succeed in EU reform if he is to advocate an ‘in’ vote – it is time others in the EU began to realise that and act accordingly, or it may be Out by default.