LONDON
The UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has said many European Union leaders support his country's stance against Jean-Claude Juncker becoming EU Commission president.
His comments on Monday came after British Prime Minister David Cameroon recently launched a campaign against Juncker, warning the UK could leave the EU if he took up the post.
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Monday, Osborne said: "The prime minister is arguing from a position of principle about getting the right people and making sure the right people choose the leader of the European Commission.
"It's not about Britain versus the rest, it is about us collectively making sure that when people from around the world are looking at where they are going to put their factories, where they are going to put their talented people, where they locate their business, they look to the EU and hopefully, within the EU, they look to Britain.”
- 'Odd phenomenon'
Osborne claimed that European politicians were not making their views known in public.
He said: "I think there is a fairly odd phenomenon at the moment - which does happen, believe it or not, in politics - which is that people are saying quite a lot of things privately that they are not saying publicly.
"I think privately a lot of European governments understand that the institutions of Europe need reform, that they are under huge pressure from their domestic populations to deliver stronger economies, more investment to Europe, that Europe needs to better connect as a union to the people on this continent.”
"I think this is quite widely understood among the European governments. Whether that plays out in the European councils over the next few days, we will see."
- Favorite to succeed
Cameron recently wrote an article in several leading European papers voicing his opposition to Junker.
Cameron has said he views Juncker, an EU veteran and the former long-term Prime Minister of Luxembourg, as an arch-federalist, but Junker has already gained support from France and Italy.
Juncker is still favorite to succeed Jose Manuel Barroso to become president of the Commission, the EU's legislative branch.
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