Migrant benefits must stay, says EU

Prime Minister faces defeat over reform plans

DAVID Cameron faces a humiliating defeat in his renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the European Union after he was ordered to compromise on his demands for welfare reform.

European Council president Donald Tusk told him there was ‘no consensus’ from the 27 other EU countries on his flagship proposal to stop migrant workers claiming benefits for their first four years in the country.

In a letter assessing Mr Cameron’s demands, Mr Tusk said he hoped for a deal by February paving the way for an early referendum, but conceded the issues raised are ‘difficult’ and that there are currently ‘substantial political differences’.

The warning came as the French ambassador to the US, Gerard Araud, said other member states did not want Britain to leave the EU but would not make fundamental changes in order for it to stay.

‘There is no consensus’

‘None will change the basic rules of the club to avoid it,’ he said.

Mr Tusk, a former Polish prime minister who chairs meetings of all 28 EU leaders, yesterday said ‘good progress’ had been made since the British Prime Minister set out his letter of demands in November, but added they needed to ‘hear more’ before going any further with the renegotiation.

On most of Mr Cameron’s points, Mr Tusk signalled there was a willingness to find an agreement. However he warned the issue of benefits was the ‘most delicate’ and gave rise to ‘political dilemmas’ that ‘will require a substantive debate’.

‘While we see good prospects for agreeing on ways to fight abuses... there is presently no consensus on the request that people coming to Britain from the EU must contribute for four years before they qualify for in-work benefits,’ he wrote.

In the Tory party manifesto, Mr Cameron promised to deliver a four-year ban on migrants receiving in-work benefits, but this now seems impossible to deliver. Last week he was forced to admit a deal would not be sealed at the European Council summit in Brussels next week. However agreement at the February meeting would allow the In/Out referendum to take place as early as June.

Ukip’s deputy leader Paul Nuttall said last night: ‘Mr Tusk has called Mr Cameron’s bluff. He must now follow through on his threat to campaign to leave the EU.’ Matthew Elliott, chief executive of Vote Leave, claimed that it was a ‘manufactured’ row with the EU to try and make the renegotiation sound more significant.

DAVID Cameron’s bid to win a ‘new settlement’ for Britain in the EU suffered an embarrassing blow last night when his key demand for curbs on migrant welfare payments was rebuffed by Brussels. There was some modest movement on his three other objectives – exempting the UK from ‘ever-closer union’, single market protection for non-eurozone countries and the setting of targets for slashing red tape – but the concessions were so vague as to be almost meaningless.

Meanwhile the real crisis – the hordes of refugees streaming into the EU from Syria and North Africa and travelling through the Schengen countries almost unchecked – rages on.

Migration is the single most important, and divisive, issue facing Europe.

In France, its effects have contributed hugely to the disturbing rise in support for the far-Right National Front and in Germany the influx of a million migrants this year alone threatens to destabilise Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.

If he is to persuade the British people to vote for staying in the EU at the forthcoming referendum, Mr Cameron needs to achieve more than a few limited pledges on protecting the free market and cutting bureaucracy.

Compared to winning back some control over our own borders and stemming the tide of migrants, these issues are simply trifling.