Banging his head against a wall ... PM’s two days of frustration
JOHN STEVENS examines, hour by hour, how European leaders ganged up on David Cameron, turning the EU summit into a 30-hour farce
THURSDAY
2.20PM (1.20pm GMT) David Cameron pledges to ‘battle for Britain’ as he arrives on the red carpet at the European Council’s Justus Lipsius building. ‘It is much more important to get this right than to do anything in a rush,’ he tells reporters. Behind his limousine trails a line of people carriers transporting some of the 30 British diplomats and aides in Brussels for the talks. Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite predicts: ‘I think everybody will have their own drama and then we’ll agree.’ 3PM European Council president Donald Tusk, who chairs meetings of all 28 EU leaders, holds a half-hour meeting with Cameron to explain how he plans to organise the summit talks. 5.10PM On the 8th floor, Cameron walks alone into the summit room carrying a large red ringbinder filled with detailed notes. He makes small talk with the other 27 leaders before they sit down for business at a large circular table. European Parliament president Martin Schulz kicks off with a shocking warning that even if EU leaders agree to Cameron’s demands on migrant benefit curbs, he and his fellow MEPs will ‘fight’ them and stop them coming into law. 5.45PM The 28 leaders pose for a group photo and return to the summit room for two hours of ‘tense’ discussions. Tusk tells them he does ‘not need to stress what is at stake’. Cameron pleads for a better deal, admitting his modest package of proposed measures has ‘been badly received’ at home and cannot be ‘watered down any further’. ‘I am not asking for anything new or something impossible… This is already a compromise on a compromise’.
Asking that Britain be allowed an ‘emergency brake’ on curbing inwork benefits to EU migrants for up to 13 years and the promise of treaty change in the ‘next few years’, he promises to campaign for the UK to stay in the EU with ‘all my mind and soul’ if they help him.
French premier Francois Hollande warns Britain cannot be allowed a veto over reforms in the eurozone. The eastern Europeans, represented by Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka, warn they will get a ‘beating’ at home if they accept cuts to child benefit for workers already in Britain.
Estonian prime minister Taavi Roivas asks that leaders ‘conclude the deal at this summit as we don’t need another crisis on top of the ones we already have’.
Belgian prime minister Charles Michel insists a clause is added to the deal making clear it is a final offer that cannot be improved if Britain votes to leave. ‘There’s no second chances,’ he says. German chancellor Angela Merkel gives one of the most supportive interventions for Cameron, insisting ‘we need to be generous enough so Cameron can go home and the people will support this’, but leaders get the impression she is ‘detached’ from the negotiations with her thoughts concentrated on the migrant crisis. Beata Szydlo, the Polish prime minister, says her ‘biggest problem’ is with cuts to child benefits, before Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa expresses a hope that Cameron gets a ‘thumping’ victory, but criticises him for taking up EU leaders’ time with what should be a ‘domestic issue’. Irish taoiseach Enda Kenny tells the others ‘this is the biggest challenge’ Cameron has faced as Prime Minister. ‘His party and Cabinet are divided, we should give him the tools for this battle,’ he adds before quoting from Macbeth: ‘If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well, it were done quickly.’ 7PM At the close of the session, Cameron des- perately warns leaders it ‘would be suicide’ if they do not give him a deal he could ‘get past the Cabinet’ and ‘win the referendum with’. He insists he ‘never came setting out ridiculous demands’ and has already made ‘big concessions’. Tusk tells the leaders he will hold one-on-one meetings before all meeting together for breakfast at 11am. 7.10PM Over a dinner of avocado and shrimp ‘imparfait’, cod loin with wheat beer emulsion and duo of potato, light mango mousse with caramelised pineapple and coffee, the leaders discuss the migrant crisis. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras uses it as an opportunity to threaten to veto Cameron’s deal unless leaders stop criticising his country’s handling of the crisis.
‘We need to help the UK, but the UK has only got a referendum in June and we have a crisis hitting us today.’ Shell-shocked British officials admit the negotiations have not gone well, one saying: ‘We expected some push back, but it was worse than we thought. Everyone was playing bad cop.’
FRIDAY
1.20AM At the end of the dinner, Tusk emerges and warns: ‘A lot remains to be done.’ In a room on the fifth floor, that resembles a police interview room, he and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker sit down at a desk opposite Cameron, who asks: ‘Do you want to start with the French issue?’ Through the night, Tusk holds meetings with Hollande to discuss his opposition to protections for the City, with Sobotka to talk about migrant benefit curbs and with Michel to go through resistance to clarifying ‘an ever closer union’. 5.40AM A bleary eyed Cameron finally leaves the building after holding two further meetings with Tusk, between which he sat in the British delegation rooms snacking on Haribo sweets and wine gums. He is driven to the British embassy for three hours’ sleep. Tusk postpones the ‘English breakfast’ scheduled for 11am, and says it will instead be a lunch at 1.30pm. 10AM Arriving back at the summit, Cameron says: ‘I’m going to get in there, do some more work, and do all I can.’ He tells Tusk: ‘I’m happy to stay until Sunday. I’ve told the wife and children.’ 12NOON After sitting down again with Hollande and Sobotka, Tusk warns that the lunch will not start until 2.30pm. An aide tells British reporters Tusk has been sustaining himself of croissants, adding: ‘I hope that doesn’t offend you.’ 1.20PM Leaders not involved in the one-to-one crisis talks walk the corridors as the lunch is postponed to 3.30pm. A candid Grybauskaite says: ‘The timing, it all depends on the deepness of the drama some countries would like to perform. We would like to help the British make their decision, but no matter what we do here, no matter what face lifting or face saving we perform, it’s up to the British people to decide.’ 2.20PM The planned lunch is pushed back to 4pm, before aides announce an hour later it will be a dinner. Cameron holds two meetings with the Polish PM as aides reveal the eastern Europeans are fiercely resisting a deal. One minister says: ‘There’s still some way to go, we need some more hours.’ 5.30PM After further talks, Cameron tweets that he will not hold a Cabinet meeting that evening. ‘English breakfast’ is delayed for a seventh time, to 8pm.
Mrs Merkel is pictured tucking into a bag of fries with andalouse sauce – mayonnaise spiced with pepper and tomato.
The eastern Europeans have met in a ‘war room’ to discuss tactics. 8.30PM All 28 leaders join together for aperitifs before finally sitting down to a dinner of crown of artichoke with goat’s cheese and rocket, fillet of veal with tarragon jus, wilted spinach and polenta, and passion fruit bavarois. 10:30PM Mr Tusk tweets from the dining room: ‘Deal. Unanimous support for new settlement for #UKinEU.’ 11:10PM Mr Cameron emerges from dinner to proclaim his deal.