Britain and other member states objected to Mr Verhofstadt's federalist vision of EU integration.
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The electorate would then be able to make clear that they want to keep the benefits of EU integration.
Even Germany's constitutional court has raised a red flag to further EU integration.
As her successor, John Major, fought Tory rebels over the Maastricht treaty, her disdain for increasing EU integration burned as brightly as ever.
The court has a history of approving EU integration with reservations.
He is known for pushing through reforms to the Czech Republic's economy after the fall of Communism and is a staunch opponent of EU integration.
By its ruling, the court sets itself up as final arbiter of further EU integration (and even of rulings by the European Court of Justice), argues Christian Calliess of the Free University in Berlin.
She was reacting to a speech by UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who urged her to tell Mr Cameron the time had come for "a simple amicable divorce" as feeling in the UK runs completely against the tide of the greater EU integration being promoted by the German leader.
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In a different era, all this might have caused great worry in Britain and, as a result, generated even more tension within the EU. But the new British government, deeply hostile to further EU integration, seems content to stand aside even as the euro zone binds itself closer.
And he will argue that deeper information sharing rather than harmonisation is how the EU should pursue integration, building on Brown's successful riposte to the proposal to establish an EU withholding tax on income from financial securities.
For almost all EU countries, European integration is an article of faith.
These organisations typically lobby for closer European integration, bigger EU budgets and more EU regulation.
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As Norway's integration with the EU intensified, he suggests that media, public and political understanding shrank.
Ukraine retorts that further integration with the EU is the answer.
It was her rejection of further integration at an EU summit in Rome that prompted a rebellion and resignations within her own cabinet and led eventually to her downfall.
The obstacle to Ukraine's integration with the EU lies not in its rapprochement with Russia but in its domestic politics, its weak institutions and the dire state of the economy.
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By implication, the closer integration that the EU is supposed to be bringing about seems to be having no discernible impact on the marriage choices of Dutch, Belgian and Spanish citizens.
Paradoxically the slow dissolution of Belgium, the most pro-European of countries, goes hand in hand with the (uneven) deeper integration of the EU. Belgium is facing its worst troubles just as the EU confronts the gravest challenge to the euro.
Mr Cameron says that there is a chance, and need, to redefine the UK's relationship with the EU because of moves towards further integration by countries using the single currency.
All the same, there is no denying that France and Germany are currently driving European integration, with the EU's other members relegated to the back seats, some happier than others.
Although Britain is normally seen as an awkward customer in EU affairs, resisting deeper political integration, it has traditionally been rather open to European countries pooling their diplomatic and military clout on a case-by-case basis, to gain global influence.
Karlsruhe may conclude that, for European integration to proceed, the EU itself must first become genuinely democratic.
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EU, in which some favour deeper integration and some do not.
Mr Tusk just about accuses his fellow EU leaders of hypocrisy for talking of integration and yet undoing the Schengen passport-free zone by reimposing some border controls.
In December, the UK prime minister blocked the idea of changes to EU treaties to bring about closer fiscal integration within the eurozone, saying the move was not in Britain's interests.
But Tory MPs have said negotiations on amending EU treaties to allow for closer fiscal integration among eurozone members could start as early as next month and the UK must be prepared for this.
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She refused "to be drawn into discussion" of whether Britain should decide if it wanted to leave the EU as the bloc moved towards closer integration, as recently suggested by Polish European commissioner Janusz Lewandowski.
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At best, EU bureaucrats can be naive about how much integration ordinary voters will bear.
Markets are unlikely to wait for the EU to call a constitutional convention, debate schemes for integration and negotiate a text, only to see it buffeted in parliamentary votes and referendums.
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