[LINK] "Merkel Allies Betray Growing Alarm `Brexit' Prospect Is Real"

[rfmcdonald]

Bloomberg's Patrick Donahue and Arne Delfs report on growing concern in Germany that the United Kingdom might leave the European Union. This would not be in Germany's interests, of course.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party colleagues expressed growing dismay at the prospect of a British exit from the European Union, with one lawmaker portraying Prime Minister David Cameron’s planned referendum as an “existential risk” for Europe.

As European leaders prepare to discuss Britain’s call for EU reform in four main areas at a summit in Brussels Thursday, Cameron’s approach is raising concern in the Chancellery in Berlin that his demands go too far, according to a German government official. Another worry is that any agreement Cameron might extract from the rest of the 28-nation EU still wouldn’t be enough to sway EU-skeptical British voters, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

“The task of finding a solution is very demanding,” and EU principles such as the free movement of citizens and equal treatment among member countries “aren’t up for debate,” Merkel said in a speech to lower-house lawmakers in Berlin on Wednesday.

Cameron is seeking to win back powers from the EU and obtain greater protection for U.K. interests to present to British voters before the referendum he plans by the end of 2017. In doing so, he may be looking for a clash in Brussels to appeal to his domestic audience amid anti-Europe sentiment in his party and country.

“A head of government should never expose his country or Europe to an existential risk, whatever the threat,” Norbert Roettgen, the head of the German parliament’s foreign-affairs committee, said in an interview on Tuesday. Gunther Krichbaum, another senior lawmaker in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said Cameron shouldn’t count on changing the EU’s treaties.