Cameron engages in ‘battle for Britain’ with EU leaders to resolve membership
BRUSSELS — Prime Minister David Cameron faced off Thursday against the 27 other European Union leaders, telling them to grant his country a new deal to settle the festering issue of their relationship or face a possible divorce as soon as this summer.
Cameron said he was “battling for Britain” at a Brussels summit — and for a less intrusive EU that would benefit other countries, too.
But French President Francois Hollande struck a cautionary note, warning that no individual leader should be allowed to stop closer European cooperation.
“It’s the EU in question, not just one country in the EU,” Hollande said as he arrived. “I want Britain to stay in the EU. But I hope most of all that Europe can advance, can be stronger.”
Cameron is seeking changes to the U.K.-EU relationship that will let him urge Britons to vote “yes” to continued membership in a referendum that could come as early as June.
He told his fellow leaders he needed a substantial deal that would be “credible for the British people.” The British referendum on EU membership is bound to be contested, because few issues in Britain have as much resonance as its relationship with the EU.
But Britain also warned it would walk away if the deal was not good enough.
“If we can get a good deal, I will take that deal,” Cameron said. “But I will not take a deal that doesn’t meet what we need.”
A British official said the 28 leaders’ first discussion session Thursday ended without a breakthrough.
“I don’t think there was any sense that gaps in key issues had narrowed,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. “There’s a lot of hard work to do overnight.”
Talks among diplomats and lawyers to nail down the final details of a U.K. deal were expected to go into the early hours Friday before a hoped-for agreement.
Britain, which has one of the strongest economies in Europe, has been a magnet for hundreds of thousands of workers from eastern EU nations who are seeking higher-paying jobs. Britain has no power to stop immigration from other EU nations, leading some in Britain to say that immigrants are taking their jobs.
Because none of the 27 other leaders wants to see Britain leave, there is broad consensus, if not agreement, on a deal Cameron says he needs to win the referendum. It would give Britain more powers to limit benefit payments to workers from other EU countries for several years — something Britain says will slow the pace of immigration.
But differences remain on other details, including Britain’s wish to be exempted from the EU’s longstanding aim of “ever closer union.”