Britain takes a step back from the EU

Britain’s efforts to craft a looser, more detached relationship with the European Union gathered pace Monday when the government said it planned to opt out of more than 130 justice and police measures to which it had once agreed. …

With the euro zone in crisis and British public opinion increasingly hostile to further European integration, the declaration Monday seemed intended to send a strong political signal.

The Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, is seeking to take some distance from the 27-nation bloc partly because his own parliamentarians feel under pressure from the United Kingdom Independence Party, which wants to take Britain out of the European Union altogether.