Cameron says Britain isn't waving "bye-bye" to EU

Speaking at the end of a two-day summit, during which Finland's Europe minister told Reuters he had the feeling Britain was slowly saying "bye-bye" to the European Union, Cameron said he just wanted a different relationship with the continent.

"Am I happy with the status quo in Europe? No I am not, I think there are changes that we need," he told a news conference. "There are opportunities opening for what I have said should be a new settlement between Britain and Europe and there will be opportunities to seek that new settlement."

Asked whether he was interested in leaving the EU, which Britain joined in 1973, Cameron said no. But he said the dynamic with Brussels needed to be changed.

Of particular concern for Britain are EU plans to set up a banking union in the euro zone, which could have implications for London's vast financial services industry, and proposals for a single budget among the 17 euro zone countries.

There are also accelerating plans for a financial transactions tax among 11 euro zone member states which could have a knock-on impact on Britain.

"The European budget and this idea that the euro zone might need to have a separate budget, that is now on the table - that is a massive change, that is a new settlement," he said.

"This whole issue of the banking union and how you safeguard properly the single market if the countries of the euro zone go ahead into a banking union, again this is about the plates of Europe moving and changing.

"The right thing for Britain to do is to say what is in our national interest."

That forthrightness is most likely to crop up next month, when the EU will get together for another summit to negotiate its next seven-year budget, a financial package that is worth around 1 trillion euros ($1.2 trillion).

Cameron is determined that Britain, a net contributor to the EU fund, should not pay a penny more than it has to, while also protecting the rebate it receives.

The prime minister, who left Britain out of an agreement among 25 of the EU's 27 countries on fiscal rules last year, said he wanted to reach an agreement on the multi-year budget, but wasn't prepared to do it at all costs.

"The British public expects a tough approach, a rigorous approach and that's exactly what they'll get, and if we can't get a deal, there's no point doing a deal that's a bad deal. If there isn't a deal that's good for Britain, if there isn't a deal that's available, then there won't be a deal," he said.

Britain's increasingly testy relationship with Brussels led Finland's Europe minister, Alexander Stubb, to speculate on Thursday whether Britain wasn't drifting towards an exit, whether it was intended or not.

"I think Britain is right now, voluntarily, by its own will, putting itself in the margins," he told Reuters.

"We see it in foreign policy, we see it in economic policy, we see it linked to the single currency. And I, as someone who advocates the single market and free trade, find that very unfortunate, very unfortunate," said Stubb, who is married to a British lawyer and studied at the London School of Economics.

"It's almost as if the boat is pulling away and one of our best friends is somehow saying 'bye-bye' and there's not really that much we can do about it."

(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths in London; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Jon Boyle)