Italian prime minister urges Britain to stay in EU

Britain leaving the EU would be a disaster for both it and the 28-nation bloc, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said yesterday .British prime minister David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s ties with the EU before offering a membership referendum in 2017 if his Conservatives are re-elected next year.

Cameron favours staying in a reformed EU but has warned that recent battles, including over a €1.7bn EU budget surcharge, have made it harder to make the case to keep Britain in.

“This could be a disasterfor Europe obviously, I believe also for the UK”, Renzi said, adding that he believed Britain and the EU benefited from Britain’s membership. “We need a UK able to invest in a different idea of Europe,” he said.