Britain gains edge in fight over EU financial reforms

European Union lawyers have given Britain victories in fights over financial regulation that will boost the country's standing in a power struggle over the future of banks and securities trading in the 28-nation bloc.

Plans for an 11-nation financial transaction tax and enhanced powers to ban short selling, both opposed by Britain, were criticised by the European Council's legal service and a senior official at the European Court of Justice. The EU executive arm also scrapped a proposal to hand oversight of London's interbank offered rate to a Paris-based regulator.

Britain, home to the European Union's biggest financial centre, has been at odds with aspects of the commission's overhaul of financial rules in response to the 2008 crisis and collapse of Lehman Brothers, which has prompted warnings from EU officials that it cannot pick and choose the terms of its relationship with the bloc.

"The commission and member states have been pushing the limits of the treaty," said Simon Gleeson, a financial regulation lawyer at Clifford Chance. "The real issue is that, increasingly, what goes on in Europe is not Europe-wide, it's various groups of states. You can't use the single EU mechanism to cut local deals."

The spate of victories are a boost for British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is under constant pressure from members of his Conservative Party to seek more concessions from the EU. Cameron has promised a referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017 if a Conservative government is elected in 2015.

"I'm delighted that the UK's targeted forensic negotiations have borne fruit this week," said Mark Field, a Tory lawmaker for the cities of London and Westminster. "No doubt the City will remain vigilant in the months ahead."