EU Veto: Leaders In Northern Ireland, Scotland And Wales To Criticise Cameron

Leaders In Northern Ireland, Scotland And Wales To Criticise Cameron's EU Veto

Political leaders in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales should challenge David Cameron on his decision to veto agreement in the European Union, a Stormont minister said.

Alex Attwood said the Prime Minister's decision could have major implications for the relationship between the devolved administrations and their European neighbours.

The Northern Ireland environment minister said he will call for the UK's regional leaders to seek talks on the issue with Mr Cameron.

"The decision of the Prime Minister has fundamental and far reaching consequences for people in the North and our government must recognise that," said Mr Attwood.

"That is why I am writing to the first and deputy first ministers urging that they speak with their counterparts in Scotland and Wales to convene an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister to work through the consequences of his decision.

"David Cameron must account for his conduct and his decision, not just in London, but to administrations in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff."

The representative of the nationalist SDLP branded the Conservative Party leader's actions as a "walkout" which Mr Attwood said had "particularly negative implications" for Northern Ireland and its trading relationship with the rest of the island of Ireland.

"The SDLP believes that the Prime Minister's decision was fundamentally wrong and decisions like this which were based on the needs of London's financial centre and Eurosceptics embody bad government, bad politics and are bad for our future," he said.

"For all of these reasons, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness should act quickly and decisively and I'll be calling on them to do so both in writing and at this week's Executive meeting."

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