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Cameron warning to EU as Juncker is approved for top job Cameron says Juncker choice is 'bad day for Europe'
(35 minutes later)
Prime Minister David Cameron has said Europe could "live to regret" the process for choosing the European Commission president, as Jean-Claude Juncker was confirmed in the role. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said the selection of Jean Claude-Juncker as the next European Commission president marks a "bad day for Europe".
EU leaders gave their backing for the former Luxembourg leader by 26 votes to two at a meeting in Brussels. He said it was a "serious mistake" for EU leaders to give ground to the European Parliament after they backed Mr Juncker by 26 votes to two.
Mr Cameron has said Mr Juncker is "wrong" for the job and his choice will shift power to the European Parliament. He suggested that it would make it harder to reform the EU and it had "raised the stakes" over the process.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Mr Cameron had been "utterly humiliated". Labour accused Mr Cameron of an "abject failure of leadership".
Mr Juncker, who must be endorsed by the European Parliament before taking the role, was the preferred candidate of the European People's Party (EPP), which won more seats than any other political group in last month's European elections. The UK and Hungary were the only two countries to oppose the former Luxembourg leader in an unprecedented vote on whether he should be nominated for the EU's top job.
'Wrong man' Mr Juncker, who must be endorsed by the European Parliament before taking the role, was the preferred candidate of the European People's Party (EPP), which is the largest group in the European Parliament.
But Mr Cameron has argued that it should be directly elected EU leaders, not the Parliament, who make the decision on who heads the EU's executive body. 'Career insider'
But Mr Cameron has argued that it should be directly elected EU leaders, not the Parliament, who make the decision on who heads the EU's executive body and this should be done on the basis of a consensus.
By opposing Mr Juncker, Mr Cameron said he had been standing up for an important principle on who made the key decisions in Europe and he felt "totally comfortable" about his actions.
While he respected the decision, he said he believed Mr Juncker was the wrong man for the job and the process by which he was chosen would "undermine" the power of national Parliaments.
"For a Europe crying out for reform, we have gone for a career insider," he told journalists.
Mr Cameron said he had taken a stand against a process that "had developed a momentum of its own", suggesting that his EU counterparts found themselves on a "conveyor belt".
"I am not going to join some cosy consensus when you think something is wrong," he said.
Mr Cameron said Europe had taken a "big step backwards" but that the UK would now redouble its efforts to call for wholesale reforms of the EU with "grit and intensity".
"It is an important stand but it is far from the last stand. You have to be ready to lose a battle to win a war."
'Parlous situation'
The BBC understands that only of the EU's 27 other member states - believed to be Hungary - joined the UK in refusing to back Mr Juncker in an unprecedented vote on his candidacy.The BBC understands that only of the EU's 27 other member states - believed to be Hungary - joined the UK in refusing to back Mr Juncker in an unprecedented vote on his candidacy.
In a message on Twitter, Mr Cameron wrote: "I've told EU leaders they could live to regret the new process for choosing the Commission President. I'll always stand up for UK interests." The Labour Party shares Mr Cameron's concerns about Jean-Claude Juncker's candidacy but said the prime minister had "burnt rather than built" the alliances necessary to produce a different outcome.
Earlier, he told reporters that Mr Juncker's track record of supporting closer European integration meant he was not the right person to help Europe address its future economic and structural challenges. "David Cameron's basic errors of statecraft and diplomacy have let Britain down," said shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander.
"It's the wrong person," Mr Cameron said. "His excuses will fool nobody, least of all his own backbenchers. Defeat for David Cameron was not inevitable. Yet it was predictable."
"Jean-Claude Juncker has been at the heart of the project to increase the power of Brussels and reduce the power of nation states for his entire working life. He is not the right person to take this organisation forward." UKIP leader Nigel Farage said: "David Cameron's response to Juncker's appointment shows that he is a loser who has learned nothing.
'Splendid isolation' "If he had kept his cast-iron guarantee of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty he would not be in this parlous situation."
At a later media briefing, No 10 said if Mr Juncker was chosen, the UK would "respect that outcome and continue to work with everyone around the table to secure the changes which are important to Britain and to Europe".
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Cameron once thought he could assemble an anti-Juncker coalition but had suffered a heavy defeat.
But by making a "heroic stand" on the issue, he said the prime minister was making it clear to the rest of Europe and his allies back home that he was serious about redefining the UK's relationship with Europe and he was "not going to go away".
'First skirmish'
Mr Cameron's stance has won him plaudits within his own party, which wants a referendum on the UK's future in Europe by 2017.
Former Cabinet minister John Redwood said it was not a worry if Mr Cameron was isolated as it was a "reminder" of the UK's fundamental differences with the rest of Europe.Former Cabinet minister John Redwood said it was not a worry if Mr Cameron was isolated as it was a "reminder" of the UK's fundamental differences with the rest of Europe.
"To those who say Mr Cameron should not have sought to block Mr Juncker because he could not win, I say you are wrong," he wrote on his blog."To those who say Mr Cameron should not have sought to block Mr Juncker because he could not win, I say you are wrong," he wrote on his blog.
"This episode has reminded all in the UK that the EU is not "coming our way"."This episode has reminded all in the UK that the EU is not "coming our way".
He added: "The battle over Mr Juncker was but the first skirmish in a long negotiation of a new relationship for the UK with the rest of the EU."He added: "The battle over Mr Juncker was but the first skirmish in a long negotiation of a new relationship for the UK with the rest of the EU."
The Labour Party shares Mr Cameron's concerns about Jean-Claude Juncker's candidacy but Ed Miliband said the prime minister had "burnt rather than built" the alliances necessary to produce a different outcome.
Speaking in Edinburgh, the Labour leader said that after Mr Cameron's "spin and bluster", Mr Juncker's nomination represented a "total failure to deliver and utter humiliation" for him.
'Telephone diplomacy'
Edward McMillan-Scott, a former Tory MEP who defected to the Lib Dems in 2010, said Mr Cameron's decision to pull the Conservatives out of the EPP, which includes Germany's centre-right Christian Democrats, in 2009 had rebounded on him.Edward McMillan-Scott, a former Tory MEP who defected to the Lib Dems in 2010, said Mr Cameron's decision to pull the Conservatives out of the EPP, which includes Germany's centre-right Christian Democrats, in 2009 had rebounded on him.
"David Cameron burnt his boats by leaving the mainstream Christian Democrat, conservative group in the European Parliament, the party of Angela Merkel," he told the BBC News Channel."David Cameron burnt his boats by leaving the mainstream Christian Democrat, conservative group in the European Parliament, the party of Angela Merkel," he told the BBC News Channel.
"The consequence is that he has no real friends. He is not part of any network in Europe any more. Therefore, it is all telephone diplomacy and it has not worked.""The consequence is that he has no real friends. He is not part of any network in Europe any more. Therefore, it is all telephone diplomacy and it has not worked."
In other political reaction, the SNP said "it could do business" with Mr Juncker but the UK Independence Party said the outcome represented "game, set and match to Brussels".In other political reaction, the SNP said "it could do business" with Mr Juncker but the UK Independence Party said the outcome represented "game, set and match to Brussels".
UKIP's leader Nigel Farage said: "David Cameron's judgement has been totally flawed.
"He has picked completely the wrong battle. What he should have done is pick a fight on policy and he has not done that."
Britain's influence in Brussels, he added, "was weaker now than at any point in the last 40 years".
Asked whether defeat for Mr Cameron could make a British exit from the EU more likely, as some have suggested, Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said: "I think David Cameron is a very principled man and he has felt strongly that Juncker is a little bit too federalist for his liking, but I think we can all make amends, we can all solve the situation."