Brussels, 07/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 7 January in London, Angela Merkel had a meeting with her British counterpart, David Cameron. This meeting focused on free movement in the EU, as well as European economic policy and the next G-7 meeting that is planned to take place in Berlin.
Several areas of tension were expected to be discussed, such as the United Kingdom's wish to amend the treaties, in an effort to respond to the problems created by the free movement of Europeans in the EU.
The British Prime Minister is hoping to obtain support from Angela Merkel for his projects to reform the EU. On the question of immigration and, under pressure from his more hard line right-wing and successes notched up by UKIP, David Cameron had formally mentioned the idea of introducing quotas on the numbers of European workers coming to the United Kingdom. The feasibility of this demand in the context of Community law was subsequently abandoned and Cameron appears to prefer restricting access to welfare benefits of European workers coming to Britain. Access to benefits would be made conditional on having lived in the country for a minimum of four years.
David Cameron has promised to organise a referendum on the United Kingdom staying in the EU in 2017 if he is re-elected but at the beginning of the week he said that he would organise this referendum earlier than planned. The possibility of national governments imposing their veto on European legislation (the “red card” principle), access to social assistance at a national level for migrants from European Union countries and the protection of countries that are not in the eurozone, in the context of the single market, are areas in which the United Kingdom would like to see reforms introduced. EUROPE will be returning to this subject. (SP)