EU legal expert casts doubt on new fiscal treaty

Charles Grant, director of the London-based Centre for European Reform, told the meeting "it is quite likely Britain will leave the EU within 10 years." Grant said that when British Prime Minister David Cameron eventually steps down, eurosceptic Conservative Party personalities like London mayor Boris Johnson might initiate a referendum on British EU membership.

He added that a two-speed EU with a separate treaty for eurozone members might work but would undermine the European Commission in its basic tasks of protecting the interests of smaller member states and launching EU-level legal proposals.