England, European Union | featured news

British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged Wednesday to offer citizens a vote on whether to leave the European Union if his party wins the next election, prompting rebukes from European leaders accusing the premier of putting the bloc's future at risk over domestic politics....

Goodbye Britain? For the European Union, a once-unthinkable question is looking more like a real possibility with each new grinding week of economic crisis. The reason is that bad times are forcing the 17 EU nations that use the euro currency to move ever closer toward some kind of United States of Europe - one that could make decisions about how much member countries spend and how much tax they collect.

Britain is pushing for changes to a proposed euro zone banking union to dilute the power of the European Central Bank, EU officials said, potentially hampering efforts to build the infrastructure urgently needed to underpin the euro.

David Cameron was warned that he faces four years of trench warfare with disgruntled backbenchers after he suffered the largest postwar rebellion on Europe as 81 Conservative MPs supported a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.