LONDON, Nov. 27 (UPI) -- Britain will fight to keep its national veto on European Union decisions on foreign policy, a Foreign Office spokesman said Thursday.
A newly unveiled compromise clause drafted by Italy for the proposed new EU Constitution, to be discussed by EU foreign ministers in Naples this weekend, says the EU should henceforth take foreign policy decisions by majority vote.
"This is unacceptable in its current form," a British government spokesman told reporters in London. He said it "breached Britain's well-known red lines" that insisted London would never surrender national control to the EU over taxes, foreign policy and defense.
Other EU countries, led by France and Germany, criticized Britain's support of the United States in the Iraq War, and have worked to weaken the traditional national veto over EU attempts to forge a common foreign and security policy.
