‘Critical’ snags at EU summit
Print Edition
EUROPEAN Union talks on a deal to convince Britain to stay in the 28-nation bloc have hit “critical” snags and leaders were yesterday asked to book hotels for an additional night, according to an EU official.
Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron was struggling in Brussels, trying to overcome some last pockets of resistance to the deal.
“We are moving forward but we are not yet at a stage where a deal is almost done,” a UK official told reporters after all-night negotiations with top EU officials and a handful of leaders with specific objections to a draft text.
Cameron was hoping to fly home and chair a Cabinet meeting later in the day to endorse what he calls a “new settlement” with the EU, setting in motion plans to call a referendum on Britain’s future in the Union, probably for June 23.
The stakes are high for both Britain and the EU, with opinion polls showing voters almost evenly split.
The risks of Cameron’s strategy were highlighted with an opinion poll showing the campaign to leave had a 2 percent lead with 36 percent support. The TNS poll showed 34 percent of British voters wanted to stay in the bloc, 7 percent would not vote and 23 percent were undecided.
All sides at the summit said the toughest issue remained Britain’s drive to restrict welfare benefits for migrant workers from other EU countries, with east European states fighting to preserve the rights of expats working in the UK and elsewhere.
A Greek government official said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had also warned he could block a British deal if he failed to secure new assurances on dealing with Europe’s migration crisis.
Summit Chairman Donald Tusk, who had hoped to wrap up a deal by breakfast yesterday, pushed back the resumption of the group meeting until after lunch. It was later postponed.
Meanwhile, he was holding a series of so-called “confessional” meetings with individual leaders.
Diplomats said differences with France over UK demands for a mechanism to protect its financial center from eurozone regulation had been narrowed down to just two words.
Cameron has promised Britons he will exclude new European immigrants from in-work benefits for four years and cut child benefit for those whose families stayed at home.
Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka was battling to prevent the measures being applied to more than a million EU workers already in Britain and to avoid other countries piggy-backing on the child benefit cut.
However, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said his country was keen to apply a plan to index child benefit for EU workers whose children stay home to their home country’s cost of living if Britain won.
Cameron is keen to show British voters he is fighting hard to secure a deal which he has called “the best of both worlds.”
“I was here till five o’clock this morning working through this and we’ve made some progress but there’s still no deal,” he told reporters yesterday morning.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
