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Germany yesterday urged Britain not to leave the EU - because it keeps the peace.

The country’s new foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned David Cameron that he would not “backtrack” on European integration.

But he offered the Prime Minister a rare olive branch in his plan to overhaul Britain’s relationship with the European Union.

Mr Cameron wants to renegotiate the UK’s position in Europe before holding an in/out referendum in 2017.

Mr Steinmeier, in London yesterday for a meeting with Foreign Secretary William Hague, said Germany was not against changing EU treaties in principle.

But the foreign minister attacked Eurosceptics for making it harder to reform Brussels.

He said: “I cannot ignore the fact that in a lot of European member states developments are worrying.

“You have got Eurosceptics getting together in parts, getting more public attention, and while Europe is in a crisis it doesn’t make our work any easier.”

He admitted that it was important to make Europe “more functional and more efficient”.

But he added: “The state of integration we have achieved is, from a German point of view, an advantage and I don’t think we should backtrack on it.”

(Image: REUTERS)

Mr Steinmeier said Brussels had stopped Europe going to war for decades.

He said: “The European union is one of the reasons for peace even though our interests may have been different, even in spite of our different histories before agreeing on European cooperation.

“Despite the wounds we have inflicted on each other, we have managed to get together politically, in this part of the world.

“We have convinced people, we have learned to deal with different opinions and that is civilising progress which cannot be questioned or challenged.”

He added: “When we look at the history and what came before the First World War.. it is clear how important foreign policy and diplomacy is.

“The history before the First world war was of not talking to each other, of alienation, of nationalisms.”

Mr Steinmeier said: “As far as we are concerned we look to have an influence on shaping this common Europe and we would also like the UK to have an influence not from the sidelines but from the midst of it.”