European countries must avoid rivalry and isolation, insists Clegg

DEPUTY Prime Minister Nick Clegg has warned that European countries can only overcome their economic crisis by sticking together and avoiding “needless rivalry and isolation”.

Mr Clegg told European Liberal party leaders that “we will not sort out this crisis by falling apart” during a meeting in London held in the wake of the Prime Minister’s veto over a controversial Brussels treaty.

The Lib Dem leader also said it would be “disastrous” if the coalition was to break up over differences between himself and David Cameron over the decision to reject the treaty. Mr Clegg, speaking at the Whitehall meeting with representatives from liberal parties in the Netherlands, Sweden and Estonia, said: “We can only address these problems by pulling together.”

He added: “The one lesson we have learnt over and over again in Europe, to our cost, is that we are stronger when we are together and weaker when we are apart. It is immensely important to work as liberals, in all our different countries, in all our different ways, to promote unity over disunity and to promote co-operation rather than needless rivalry and isolation.”

Mr Clegg, asked whether he had a message for Tory eurosceptics said: “We are at our best when we lead. We are not at our best when we are isolated.”

ANDREW WHITAKER