David Cameron's Europe plan is doomed - EU ministers.

David Cameron's plans regarding Europe are coming under further attack, as more and more European leaders express dismay at the direction he is proposing taking Britain in.

Four more countries yesterday dismissed the Tories' new approach, in a direct rebuff to William Hague, who insisted that the party was not isolated after France's Europe minister accused the Conservatives of "castrating" Britain's position in the EU.

Europe ministers from Poland, the Netherlands and the Irish Republic – historically among the friendliest to Britain in the EU – as well as Spain, said Cameron would not achieve his demand to repatriate social and employment laws to Britain. His plans would need the agreement of all 27 leaders of the EU because they would involve rewriting the union's treaties.

Frans Timmermans, the Dutch centre- left Europe minister, told the Guardian the Tory plans would have a "paralysing effect on Europe … There is more chance of a snowball surviving hell than the EU restarting debates on treaty change."

Timmermans said no EU leader would want to reopen treaties to accommodate the Tories. "You can still hear the sigh of relief across Europe that we have finally finished with treaty change. Everyone is so relieved that we can finally stop talking about the internal rules of the EU and start doing something about the crisis, something about the climate change issues and about international affairs. There is no member state that wants another round of debate about the rules of the game."

This is simply a silly game which Cameron has been playing to appease the lunatic wing of his own party, there is no-one in Europe who imagines that he can be remotely serious about this.

But it says something about the man, that he would publicly embrace a position which most of his European allies openly scoff at. Indeed, as I spoke of yesterday, the French have gone as far as to label his plans "autistic." That's pretty strong language under any circumstances, from a diplomat it is almost unheard of, and it really gives some indication of just how bonkers Cameron's plans actually are.

Even right wing governments are chastising Cameron as naive:

Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, the centre-right Polish Europe minister, said treaty change was out of the question. He said the Tories were wrong to worry about powers being ceded to Brussels. "Nobody wants to repatriate powers from London to Brussels. The problem is powers are repatriated from London to Beijing. Without recognising that, without having Brussels and other European capitals on side, London will be marginalised."

Of course, none of this will matter to the Tories. They are not the brightest bunch, and they have been talking this nonsense for so long that they have come to believe it.

But, hopefully, the British electorate might reconsider who they are about to elect. They should certainly question why the whole of Europe, including all of our allies, are so incredulous at what Cameron is proposing.

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Tags: David Cameron, Europe, EU