French minister calls British Conservatives 'pathetic'

(LONDON) - A French minister accused David Cameron, tipped to be Britain's next prime minister, of "pathetic" EU policies Thursday, amid signs of discontent in his Conservative party over Europe.

Pierre Lellouche, France's Europe Minister, launched an extraordinary broadside against opposition leader Cameron, saying his party's approach had "castrated" Britain in Europe.

The attack -- dismissed as an "emotional outburst" by a senior Conservative -- came after Cameron backtracked on a "cast-iron guarantee" to hold a referendum on the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. He said the move was no longer practical since the Czech Republic became the last country to ratify it this week.

Cameron said the Tories would take back powers from Europe by securing opt-outs on human rights plus some social and employment legislation, as well as limiting the power of the European Court of Justice in Britain.

Two of his MEPs have quit frontbench roles over the policy switch, while some experts question how much power Cameron could realistically claw back from the EU.

"It's pathetic. It's just very sad to see Britain, so important in Europe, just cutting itself out from the rest and disappearing from the radar map," Lellouche told the Guardian newspaper in response.

He accused Tory foreign affairs spokesman and former leader William Hague of a "very bizarre sense of autism" in their discussions over Europe, adding that the party's withdrawal from the main centre-right group this year "essentially castrated your UK influence in the European Parliament."

Hague hit back Thursday, saying the Conservatives would be "tougher" in negotiations than Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour party and could face "abuse" for that.

"We have had one little emotional outburst from one French minister but I don't think we should take that as a sign of how things will be in Europe in the future," he told Sky News television.

Cameron, meanwhile, insisted his new policy was "doable, credible, deliverable" -- by contrast with Brown, who critics say broke a promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to streamline EU decisionmaking.

"I did not promise a referendum come what may because once the Lisbon Treaty is the law, there's nothing anyone can do about it," he told the Sun newspaper.

"And I'm not going to treat people like fools and offer a referendum that has no effect."

Cameron's new stance has already caused resignations within the party, riven by destructive splits on Europe since the days of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

Two MEPs quit the party's front bench in the European Parliament over the move, including arch-Eurosceptic Daniel Hannan, who was legal affairs spokesman and is still urging a referendum.

Cameron, whose party has a double-digit lead in most opinion polls over Labour with a general election due by June next year, had said he wanted to avoid a "massive Euro bust-up" on the issue.

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, a former EU trade commissioner, said the furore revealed the Conservatives' main preoccupation.

"If the Tories get into government, we now know what will obsess them -- picking fights in Europe and isolating Britain in the EU," he said.

"Having seen his first cast-iron guarantee grow rusty and fall apart over the treaty referendum, David Cameron is now promising to plunge Britain's EU relations into semi-permanent crisis."

Julie Smith, of Cambridge University's Centre for International Studies, questioned if Cameron could live up to his latest pledges.

"It's extremely difficult to think he's going to be able to do so," she told BBC radio.

"In order to repatriate powers, he would have to have the agreement of all 26 of the other member states. It's difficult to see they're going to do that."