© Photograph: Kerim Okten/EPADavid Cameron’s stated strategy on securing a looser UK-EU relationship to be laid out in a major speech within weeks.
The US has issued a blunt warning to the UK not to leave the European Union, saying Britain would undermine its influence in Washington by trying to renegotiate membership.
The forthright American intervention in the European debate, from a senior US official, came on a day David Cameron's campaign to reset the terms of Britain's EU membership also came under concerted assault from Brussels and Dublin, with senior figures warning the prime minister against renegotiating the European treaties to secure a new deal and signalling bluntly that this was not on the agenda.
"We have a growing relationship with the EU as an institution, which has an increasing voice in the world, and we want to see a strong British voice in that EU," Philip Gordon, the US assistant secretary of state for Europe, said on a visit to London "That is in America's interests. We welcome an outward-looking EU with Britain in it."
Gordon stressed that it was up to the UK define its own interests, but in what appeared a clear reference to the government's proposal to renegotiate membership and repatriate some powers from Brussels, he stressed that an inward-looking EU, preoccupied with its own internal procedures would be seen as a lesser ally by Washington.
"Every hour at a summit spent debating the institutional make-up of the European Union is one hour less spent on how to deal with the common issues of jobs, growth and international peace around the world," he said, in remarks first reported by the Financial Times.
Meanwhile, at an event in Dublin marking Ireland's assumption of the EU's six-month rotating presidency, Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, described the prospect of Britain quitting the EU as a "disaster", while Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European council, called on the UK to remain an "active, full, and leading" member of the union.
It has been US position for several years that it regards close British engagement in Europe as being in American interests. But Gordon's remarks - delivered on a day he met David Lidington, the Europe minister, and shortly before David Cameron is due to deliver a landmark speech setting out his plan to renegotiate Britain's ties with the EU - appeared to be a clear message to the government that the "special relationship" would be devalued in the eyes of the Obama administration if Britain left the EU, or got bogged down in drawn-out negotiations on the details of its membership.
Cameron's stated strategy on securing a looser UK-EU relationship, to be laid out in a major speech within weeks, hinges on 27 governments reopening the EU's Lisbon treaty, enabling Britain to push changes "repatriating" powers from Brussels to London.
Senior Irish politicians said other European governments were privately urging Cameron to desist. Van Rompuy said EU governments could not agree on what they wanted to change in the treaty, so the prospect of a renegotiation was remote.
"At this stage of the debate we don't need as much treaty change as people think," said Van Rompuy. "For those ideas for where treaty change is needed there is simply no consensus. So the possibility of having treaty changes in the next future or present are not very high."
He added that he would wait to hear what Cameron said in his keenly awaited speech on Britain in Europe, although there is much confusion in EU capitals about when and where the prime minister will deliver a speech that has been given a high billing for months.
Kenny warned that the EU's "floodgates" would be opened if the Lisbon treaty was revisited to suit an individual country.
"We would see it as being disastrous were a country like Britain to leave the union. Clearly the British government will form their own view."
The Irish see British membership as a vital national interest for themselves because of the close economic and financial ties as well as a common history. Senior government figures in Dublin appeared thoroughly bemused as to what Downing Street actually hopes to achieve.
Cameron has repeatedly stated in recent weeks that other European leaders want to re-open the Lisbon treaty because of the euro currency crisis and to engineer a closer fiscal and political union at least among the 17 countries sharing the currency.
In fact, the other EU leaders are seeking to avoid treaty change since it could result in years of gruelling negotiations and open a Pandora's box of competing claims.
"Britain is a highly appreciated, highly valued and very important member of the EU. I believe it is in British interests to stay not only a member of the EU but a very active and full member, a leading nation in the EU. Of course it is for the British people to decide on their future," said Van Rompuy.
Britain's participation in the EU is one big joke. They 've managed to stick to their own currency, make their language the international default language and even be the reference for international time zones. They don't need the EU and the EU doesn't need them.