Its curtain for Britain and the EU and Germany is allowing it - by Ralf Neukirch, Christoph Pauly, Christoph Scheuermann and Christoph Schult

Europe won the Nobel Peace Prize last week, but it comes at a time when the threat of the European Union splitting is considerable. Great Britain is turning away from the EU and the German government is allowing it to do so. In the future, Chancellor Merkel wants to forge ahead with projects London opposes.

David Cameron knows that if there is one thing that pleases his fellow party members, it's a rant against Brussels. At last week's Tory party conference in Birmingham, it didn't take long before the British prime minister had his audience in high spirits.

Cameron reminded his listeners of the negotiations with other European Union member states over the fiscal pact last December. "There were 25 people in the room, urging me to sign," he said proudly. "And still I said no." The reaction was predictable, with the delegates applauding enthusiastically.

The Tories had understood the message Cameron was trying to convey, namely that the government in London no longer has much in common with Europe. The British want to have no part of further integration on the continent, and they also want to withdraw from many areas of policy in which they have been involved in Brussels so far.

The new approach has sweeping consequences for the European Union. Cameron's stance has already prompted the Germans to rethink their approach. Chancellor Angela Merkel had long hoped that a permanent division of the EU could be avoided. She had repeatedly said privately that one should not give the British the feeling that they are no longer part of Europe, and that the door must be kept open for London.

Those hopes have now been dashed. The German government is convinced that the Euro Group will be the core of a new, more deeply integrated Europe.

Each additional step toward closer cooperation in the euro zone deepens the rift within the EU. The Germans are also unwilling to wait for the British to come around in other areas, such as foreign and defense policy. Ironically, Europe threatens to split the year the EU is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

When then-President Charles de Gaulle blocked England's accession to the European Economic Community, one of the precursors to the EU, in 1963, he said: "England's simple participation in the community would considerably change its nature and its volume." The same now applies, only the other way around, for a Europe in which the British are at best spectators in the gallery, like Statler and Waldorf, the two old men on "The Muppet Show."

New Path in London Leads Away from European Union - SPIEGEL ONLINE