We can do deal on migrants and benefits to keep Britain on board, says new EU chief

DAVID Cameron’s hopes of reforming Britain’s relationship with Brussels received a boost as the new president of the European Council came out in support of a clampdown on benefit tourism.

Donald Tusk said he ‘could not imagine’ the EU without Britain – and it would be a ‘dark scenario’ if we left.

He described the EU’s free movement of labour rules as a ‘barrier’ to continued UK membership, insisting it would be possible to ‘reach an agreement’ on change.

‘We can work together to eliminate any welfare abuse by EU migrants,’ he said.

Mr Cameron has pledged a referendum on whether Britain should stay in Europe, held in 2017, after renegotiations with Brussels.

Reform of immigration laws to crack down on free movement is a key goal for the Tories, particularly the right of migrants to claim benefits here. The comments by Mr Tusk, the Polish prime minister, will give Downing Street greater optimism that they will achieve success.

Mr Cameron hopes Mr Tusk will be able to act as a counterweight to the other powerful EU figure, president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, who is likely to seek to block reforms.

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We think it is important that we have got a partner in the presidency of the EU Council who we can work with on reform.’

Poland has already been working with the UK on deregulation to help business, expansion of the single market and the exploitation of cheaper energy such as shale gas.

Ex-Tory MP Douglas Carswell, who has defected to Ukip, said he had no confidence in the Prime Minister’s ability to persuade Brussels to agree significant reform.

But it is understood the Polish leader is ready to support a crackdown on ‘benefit tourism’, such as supporting limits on welfare payments to migrant workers. Mr Tusk said he wanted to ‘emphasise that the EU, and me personally, will take on the concerns voiced by the UK’.

‘I am talking about the UK because I am sure that the future of the EU is not about making it smaller, about contraction,’ he said.

‘No reasonable person can imagine the EU without the UK. I cannot imagine it myself. I have talked about it with David Cameron. He put forward many proposals for reforms and I am sure with a reasonable framework of politicians we can reach an agreement.

‘We can strive to eliminate various barriers – freedom of movement of workers, for example.’

Mr Tusk added: ‘We’ll need solutions to the concerns of Great Britain. No one reasonable can envis- age the dark scenario of an EU without Britain. Many of the suggestions put forward for EU reform [by Mr Cameron] are sensible. We can work together to eliminate any welfare abuse by EU migrants.’

Mr Cameron welcomed the comments, saying: ‘I’m delighted obviously with what Donald Tusk has said about the importance of reform in the EU and addressing the concern that Britain has in the EU. I look forward to working with him in the months and the years ahead.’

The Prime Minister’s support for Mr Tusk’s presidency is a significant departure from earlier this year when the two fell out after Mr Cameron singled out the £55million paid in child benefits to Polish immigrants. Also appointed was new foreign policy chief, Italy’s Federica Mogherini, who will take over from Britain’s Cathy Ashton.

The Prime Minister’s success in backing the right horse in Mr Tusk is in sharp contrast to his humiliating failure to block Mr Juncker as Commission president earlier this year. Mr Juncker is an arch federalist who is unlikely to be willing to support limits on the free movement of workers.

Outgoing Council president Herman Van Rompuy said ‘Britain’s place in the Union’ was one of three challenges facing Mr Tusk, along with the ‘stagnating economy’ and Russia’s dispute with Ukraine.

Ukip MEP Bill Etheridge said: ‘Donald Tusk is a rabid EU centraliser who wants to take more power away from national governments and hand it over to Brussels … It is a scandal that David Cameron would back Poland’s Donald Tusk for … president of the European Council.’