Migrant benefits set to top agenda — European Union renegotiation talks

British Prime Minister David Cameron reported progress in talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday, but he said EU proposals to address his reform demands were still “not enough”.

At Sunday’s meeting with Tusk, Cameron will demand the right to use the “emergency brake” immediately after any referendum vote to stay in the EU, British newspapers said Sunday.

Eurosceptics have dismissed the proposals on the table as “pretty thin gruel” that would do little or nothing to stem the flow of would-be workers arriving in the United Kingdom, notably from eastern European states. “It needs more work but we are making progress”.

European Union officials have hinted that Britain could adopt an “emergency brake” on European Union migrants’ benefits for up to four years under the condition that it could prove its welfare system was “under excessive strain”.

Negotiations on four areas where Cameron wants reform – on issues of national sovereignty and the power of euro zone states over Britain as well as on migration – have moved up several gears this month, however.

The draft deal brokered with Mr Tusk is expected to be published later this week, ahead of a crunch Brussels summit on February 18 to finalise the terms.

Some other member states such as Poland consider the British proposal to be discriminatory.

For some countries, Cameron’s effort to limit some benefits to migrants is anathema because it would breach a crucial principle: that all European Union citizens are treated equally across the bloc.

“Work continues and will continue during the weekend”, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum by the end of 2017, but he will schedule an earlier vote, most likely for late June, if he can negotiate changes to Britain’s relationship with the bloc to get what he calls a “better deal”.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski was firm in his stance against any change to the welfare benefits now enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of Polish workers in Britain.

“I can tell you that Mr. Schulz is going to invite Mr. Cameron for that plenary or if that’s not possible, at least for the Conference of the Group leaders on the 16th of February”, Verhofstadt said.

Mr Baker conceded that open dissent both within the Vote Leave organisation and between rival organisations seeking to front the “leave” campaign was proving an unhelpful distraction.

Ahead of his visit to Brussels, the Prime Minister warned that the deal now on the table is not good enough.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a final push to seal a deal on curbing welfare benefits for migrants as part of his larger plan to prevent Britain becoming the first country to leave the EU.

“What I was previously told was impossible is now looking like it is possible”, he told the BBC.

Mr Cameron will also say the brake should be seen only as a “stop gap” while a more permanent solution is found.