Hollande says "non" to David Cameron's repatriation of powers

The French president, François Hollande, has told David Cameron that he is obsessed with his own problems and that he will veto any attempts to change EU treaties that Cameron asks for for his mythical renegotiation of our relationship with the EU.

David Cameron promised a whole raft of repatriations of power from Brussels if he wins the next election, including immigration, employment law and criminal justice. Repeated public statements by French, German and Polish politicians that they will veto any of these attempts has downgraded his renegotiation demands to an opt out from the legally binding requirement to support ever closer union and even that has been shot down in flames.

From day one the promise to renegotiate and repatriate powers from the EU has been a deception. Changing anything in an EU treaty requires the unanimous agreement of all member states of the EU. David Cameron knows this, every MP knows this, every civil servant knows this and all the media know this. It doesn't matter how many times someone says that the Tories will repatriate powers from the EU, it just isn't possible - power flows one way to the EU, it can't come back.

Barroso dismisses Cameron's repatriation of powers

Emperor Barroso has dismissed the prospect of negotiating Cameron's mythical "repatriation" of EU powers, according to Public Service Europe.

Did British Prime Minister David Cameron expect Brussels to lend a sympathetic ear to his call for power to be returned to national capitals? The notion that the power-grabbing European Commission would voluntarily debate giving up its hard-earned rights would probably have been too much to hope for. Either way, it looks as if commission president José Manuel Barroso is not particularly excited about the idea.

[...]

Barroso's newly published reply comes as close to saying "no" as diplomatic language will allow. "The Treaty of Lisbon defines already clearly the areas of competence of the European Union," he wrote. "In accordance with the principle of conferral any area not falling within the EU competence remains in the domain of the member states. EU competences are exercised in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as set out in the treaties."

In other words, they've got the power and it's written down so tough.

The people conducting this review are going to be coming out with ideas regularly over the next year or two," said a source at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. "You are going to see two or maybe four ideas a year, I think. Cameron has to be seen to be responding to the Eurosceptic mood of the people," the source told this website

As ever with Cameron, it's about what he's seen to be doing rather than what he actually does.  As long as he's seen to be acting like a eurosceptic it doesn't matter that he's an EU-loving traitor who's greatest "eurosceptic" achievement is reducing the membership payments of every EU member state whilst ours increase.