LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron's attempts to win back powers from the European Union could damage the 27-nation bloc and its single market, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said in an interview published on Thursday.
Cameron, trailing in opinion polls and under pressure from an anti-EU group within his Conservative party, wants to take advantage of the Eurozone crisis to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels and win more opt-outs from its rules.
Van Rompuy, whose council represents EU member states, told the Guardian newspaper that the bloc could fall apart if individual countries were allowed to pick and choose from its regulations.
His intervention indicates the difficulties Cameron faces in trying to silence his rebellious lawmakers by forging a new deal for Britain within the European Union.
"If every member state were able to cherry-pick those parts of existing policies that they most like, and opt out of those that they least like, the union in general, and the single market in particular, would soon unravel," Van Rompuy said.
"All member states can, and do, have particular requests and needs that are always taken into consideration as part of our deliberations. I do not expect any member state to seek to undermine the fundamentals of our co-operative system in Europe," Van Rompuy added.
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