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Germany: We'll keep UK in EU

The Local Germany
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Germany: We'll keep UK in EU
Schäuble and Merkel Photo: DPA

Germany’s finance minister has pledged to keep the UK in the EU following a damaging defeat for Britain over the appointment of the EU Commission president which pushed the UK closer to the exit door.

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UK Prime Minister David Cameron only managed to find Hungary as an ally in his bid to stop Jean-Claude Juncker becoming Commission president on Friday, as his allies in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands deserted him.

The move has made a British exit of the EU more likely, but in an interview with the UK's Financial Times on Sunday, Germany’s powerful finance minister and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s right-hand man, Wolfgang Schäuble, said Britain leaving the 28-country bloc was “unimaginable”. 

He said: “Historically, politically, democratically, culturally, Britain is entirely indispensable for Europe”.

Schäuble added that London was “by a great distance” one of the most important financial centres in the world.

Cameron needs German support to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU before a promised referendum on the UK's membership in 2017. 

SEE ALSO: German eurosceptics join UK Conservatives

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