Britain set for EU referendum vote next year
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel also said after the talks that Mr. Cameron’s position had clearly evolved and that a compromise was possible.
“He explained his request for a model based on four years and reiterated his openness to alternative solutions only if they could achieve the same objective”.
France’s Hollande however said he was opposed to treaty change. “Not now, but perhaps later”, she said.
One that has been suggested is an emergency brake, or a political mechanism that allows either the European Council, the Commission or the Parliament to decide if migration is causing such a strain on the economy that it can be halted, according to an EU diplomat familiar with the talks.
Cameron’s goal is to get agreement at a February 18-19 summit, which could mean a referendum as early as June.
When asked by a journalist about how Britain could manage a referendum in such a short time, Cameron said he have been mandating with British people since the election back in May.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron ran into coordinated opposition to his proposals for European Union overhauls Thursday, as fellow EU leaders pushed back against aspects of his demands that they branded discriminatory.
But with Europe already deeply split by a year that has seen a record inflow of almost one million mainly Syrian refugees, crises in Greece and Ukraine and terror attacks in Paris, his counterparts were in little mood for compromise.
And tellingly, French president Francois Hollande – possibly by mistake – said the target date for the referendum was June.
The Taoiseach described the meeting as positive, and said there was a willingness to understand the issues raised.
But she added that this was “always with a regard to the protection of the fundamental principles of the EU”, such as non-discrimination and freedom of movement.
“Where there is a will, there is a way”, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The longer the vote is delayed, the longer there will be uncertainty over the future of the European Union and Britain, including on issues such as trade.
Cameron also noted the next two months will bring “very hard work not just on welfare but on all the issues we put forward”.
Leaders from all sides appeared to be careful not to jeopardise the process of the negotiations and chose to give more time before really deciding in which direction to go for an agreement.
He included: “He was told to return in February when I imagine he’ll likely get a number of minor concessions”.
“How these changes are achieved has to be negotiated”, he told the BBC.
“We have got to address this worry of the British people that they will be taken against their will into a political project”.
But British government officials said he had shown flexibility and now it was up to lawyers and technocrats to sort out the details for his proposed reform of welfare, and his demands in three other demands, in two months. What matters is that these changes are legally binding and irreversible.
“But Britain is deadly serious about reducing the pull, the attractiveness of our benefits system, so that we can start to reduce, rather than see migration increase”. “If not the negotiations will be more hard, because while it is legitimate to listen to the British Prime Minister, it is not acceptable to revise the very basis of European commitments”. But today many well-educated Polish people live in the United Kingdom and work there and are building the GDP of Great Britain’.