Prime Minister David Cameron has defended his party's approach to the EU against criticism from Labour that he had "lost control" of Conservative backbenchers keen for the UK to leave the EU.
As Mr Cameron reported back to MPs on the recent EU Council summit of EU leaders on 22 October 2012, Labour leader Ed Miliband said "we have a prime minister outside the room looking in at Britain's empty seat at the table".
The opposition leader told MPs the "government is a shambles and it's Britain that suffers".
But Mr Cameron insisted that the UK had led the debate in the EU on sanctions against Iran and Syria, the push to complete the single market, and signing trade deals with other global economies.
He defended his decision to pledge a referendum on the UK's relationship with the EU after the next general election, which is due in 2015.
It would not be a referendum on whether to leave the EU, he explained.
"What I want us to achieve is a new settlement between the UK and the EU, and then we should put that settlement to fresh consent; that is what should happen.
"I think the idea of an in-or-out referendum is wrong because I neither support the status quo neither do I think that leaving is the right option," he said.
Europe's leaders met in Brussels between 18-19 October to discuss the ongoing crisis in the eurozone.
Mr Cameron told MPs that the summit had not arrived at any "landmark decisions".
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