EU leaders remain divided over UK’s terms of membership
The United Kingdom is facing growing rift at the EU summit as Prime Minister David Cameron meets European heads of state over his bid to reform the bloc.
Citing a leaked copy of the final draft on Britain’s new terms of membership, British media reports suggest that there is no certainty European leaders would agree over key sticking points.
A series of documents circulated among member states on Thursday also showed that the differences is widening than narrowing as predicted before.
A day earlier, European Council President Donald Tusk expressed pessimism over a deal aimed at keeping London in the 28-nation bloc. However, he called on all members to help bridge the remaining gaps with the UK. Tusk said that the failure to reach an agreement will be a defeat for both sides.
London wants to renegotiate terms of its EU membership before a UK referendum by the end of 2017 on whether it should remain in the 28-member alliance. Among its key demands is welfare benefit cuts for non-Britons working in the country for four years. The request has already been rejected by several east European countries.
Major powers like Germany have said that Britain’ stay in the bloc would be mutually beneficial. But the proposed restrictions to child benefits and in-work benefits highlighted in the leaked draft received poorly by countries such as Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia also known as the Visegrad group.
British officials have also conceded that Cameron has so far failed to secure treaty change which he launched after the general election victory last year.
‘Pressure on Cameron’
All eyes now on two-day meeting in Brussels but EU leaders have so far shown no consensus on the British demands. A failure to underpin the reforms would represent a setback for Cameron who would be pressurized to resign at home if defeated in the planned referendum.
The uncertainty over treaty change came amid quiet confidence in Whitehall that Cameron will secure agreement from the EU’s 27 other leaders for his new terms for Britain’s EU membership.
Cameron will be chairing a cabinet meeting after he returns to London with or without a deal after the summit on Friday. London’s mayor Boris Johnson has kept the prime minister waiting about whether he intends to support the campaign to keep Britain in a reformed EU.
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