EU leaders ambush Cameron
DAVID Cameron was ambushed in Brussels last night with demands to further water down his EU referendum deal.
Warning Britain to ‘take it or leave it’, Eastern European leaders insisted curbs on handouts to foreign workers must be phased in gradually.
The Prime Minister had been pleading at a summit in the city for a ‘credible’ package to help him lock Britain into the EU for a ‘generation’. But his counterparts put up a wall of opposition to his plans to limit access to the welfare state.
And, in a further slapdown, they warned any package that is cobbled together will be final
and the UK must take it or quit the European Union for good.
The French and the Belgians insisted there could be no second referendum if the UK votes to leave while on a day of drama in Brussels and Westminster:
The president of the European Parliament threatened to wreck the agreement if it is ‘discriminatory’;
A senior Tory official was found to be urging business leaders to sign a letter in support of the deal before it had even been agreed;
A Conservative grassroots leader announced he was quitting the party in protest at Mr Cameron’s handling of the renegotiation;
Tory MPs reacted furiously to the BBC giving Neil Kinnock a ten-minute platform to make scaremongering claims about the dangers of leaving the EU;
It was claimed a separate letter in support of staying in the EU would secure the backing of more than 80 FTSE 100 firms;
After the first round of talks, Number 10 aides admitted there were ‘real outstanding issues to resolve’ on curbing migrant benefits, protecting the City of London and securing treaty change.
They said Mr Cameron was prepared to walk away from the summit and try again in a few weeks. This is despite a detailed timetable being in place for him to fly back to London at lunchtime, hold a Cabinet meeting and announce in Downing Street that the referendum will take place on June 23.
Failing to secure a deal today would leave Mr Cameron facing a scramble to hold his poll before the summer – when the EU migrant crisis is expected to reach its peak. His draft deal has already been
‘Real outstanding issues to resolve’
denounced as ‘feeble’ by Tory MPs who say it does not repatriate a single power to Britain or curb mass immigration.
But, at last night’s talks, he came under intense pressure to water it down still further by agreeing not to introduce restrictions on the payment of child benefit to EU workers immediately.
Downing Street insisted Mr Cameron was resisting the demands for a further cave-in. Sources indicated he was looking to toughen his own requirements – asking for a brake that restricts migrants claiming tax credits to last for up to 13 years.
But Eurosceptic MPs said it still seemed that the ‘ thin gruel’ on offer to voters appeared to be getting even thinner. They added that, despite the drama in Brussels, the negotiation remained a huge missed opportunity to fundamentally change Britain’s relationship with the EU.
MPs also reacted with fury to news that a senior Tory MP had begun rounding up business leaders to publicly back the deal before it had even been completed.
Ramping up the pressure on Mr Cameron, the French and Belgians made it clear that the British public would be given no second chance to secure a better package.
They demanded that a clause should be written into the draft agreement on Britain’s EU membership that explicitly rules out holding a second referendum if the UK votes to leave. Eurosceptics had argued that, if the UK votes out in the referendum, Brussels might be prepared to return to the table to offer meaningful concessions on issues such as free movement.
During tense talks, expected to run over into today, Mr Cameron last night told his counterparts that his aim now was to secure a package that would be ‘credible’ with the British people.
The PM said: ‘The question of Britain’s place in Europe has been allowed to fester for too long and it is time to deal with it.’
Mr Cameron faced opposition to his draft deal in four key areas: securing an opt-out for Britain from the EU’s commitment to ‘ever closer union’; securing rules to protect the City from the eurozone countries; curbing welfare payments to migrants and making his changes irreversible by securing treaty change. Eastern European leaders were demanding yet more changes to the Prime Minister’s plan for an emergency brake on the payment of in-work benefits, such as tax credits, to migrant workers.
Countries such as Poland are fearful that other member states such as Germany might seek to copy the UK’s proposal.
On child benefit, Mr Cameron was under intense pressure to phase in his plan to reduce the level of payment made on behalf of youngsters who live abroad. Eastern European countries want it to be phased in over 16 years.
Number 10 sources held out the prospect of talks ending today without a deal. One aide said: ‘There are real outstanding issues to resolve. It is not clear how we do that.’
Officials said the other EU leaders had said they wanted to keep Britain in the EU ‘but there was not much sign of that’.