(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the European Parliament on
Wednesday, shortly before she was due to visit Prime Minister David Cameron,
that she wanted Britain to remain in the EU.
"I want a strong Great Britain inside the
European Union. I cannot imagine a Europe without Britain," she said in reply to
a question from a Eurosceptic British lawmaker, who urged her to tell Cameron
that Britain should leave the EU.
"I believe you can be very happy on an
island, but being alone in this world doesn't make you any happier," she
said.
Merkel was scheduled to meet the British
leader for a working dinner later on Wednesday to discuss a stand-off over the
EU's medium-term budget and German irritation at Britain's growing disengagement
with EU integration.
(Reporting by Claire Davenport and
Angelika Stricker; Writing by Stephen Brown in Berlin)
|