PM to f inally list his EU demands (but not till next month)
DAVID Cameron is to finally publish details of his EU renegotiation demands next month, in a bid to revive stalled talks.
After months of prevarication, the Prime Minister yesterday bowed to pressure from home and abroad by agreeing to set out his stall within weeks.
Ministers fear that by revealing his hand he could provoke criticism from eurosceptic backbenchers that he is asking for too little in return for campaigning to keep Britain in.
But he was forced to act after EU leaders warned they would not engage in serious negotiations until they had seen his demands in writing. As he arrived for a summit in Brussels yesterday, Mr Cameron said he would now present a list of the demands he is seeking within weeks.
The decision increases the likelihood of the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU taking place
‘Negotiations
going well’
next year. Mr Cameron insisted negotiations were ‘going well’, but added: ‘The pace will now quicken and I’ll be again setting out the four vital areas where we need change, laying down what those changes will be at the start of November.’
Mr Cameron has so far only talked about his ambitions for EU reform in broad terms. The four main areas identified are competitiveness, sovereignty, fairness and ‘migration’.
The first involves promoting free trade and markets, the second is lifting the commitment to ‘evercloser union’ and giving greater powers to national parliaments.
Fairness involves measures to protect countries not in the Euro and the fourth centres on changes to welfare rules for migrant workers – but is unlikely to involve any curbs to the principle of free movement.
London Mayor Boris Johnson last night upped the ante by suggesting Mr Cameron could get sweeping concessions from Brussels far beyond those he is thought to be asking for.
Speaking from Japan, he said: ‘There could be a new dispensation that involved Britain staying within the single market but being exempted from a lot of the other stuff.’ He called for far less topdown regulation within the EU and much more free trade. ‘ On that basis, I would vote to stay but it obviously follows that if we don’t get the changes we want and we don’t see progress then you have got to be prepared to walk away,’ he said.
Senior Tories were this week briefed that Mr Cameron could put off presenting his demands until March next year, prompting Brussels officials and fellow EU leaders to crank up the pressure for him to act sooner. European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker warned they had so far not made ‘huge progress’ in the talks.
Downing Street initially dismissed the pressure, with Mr Cameron’s spokesman on Wednesday saying the talks would be ‘driven by substance, not by schedules’. But yesterday, after meeting Mr Juncker, Mr Cameron said the demands would be presented in a l etter to EC President Donald Tusk next month. The document will also be made public. Shortly before the announcement, former Tory leader William Hague warned of the dangers of giving a list of demands. At a conference in Manchester, he said: ‘It would be quite a mistake… because every idea, every suggestion, would then become a red line that was impossible to retreat from.’
German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday said her country would work ‘constructively’ with Britain but warned there were some things that ‘cannot be haggled over’.
The anti-EU Vote Leave group welcomed the PM’s move. Spokesman Robert Oxley said: ‘David Cameron is supposed to be renegotiating our EU membership on our behalf but we, the public, have no idea what he is asking for.’ Mr Tusk said the formal list of demands would mean ‘real negotiations’ can start.
Mr Juncker insisted yesterday he wanted Britain to remain a member of the EU - despite apparently having said two days ago he thought we should leave. In a speech to MEPs on Wednesday, he was believed to have said: ‘I don’t think Britain needs the European Union.’ But yesterday his officials claimed he had been misheard and had said: ‘I do think Britain needs the European Union.’