Brussels, 23/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, may well fail to pull off his gamble of securing an agreement, even a tacit one, from his European partners at the meeting of the European Council on 17 December on the EU reforms he recently proposed in the framework of the referendum on the United Kingdom's membership (see EUROPE 11428).
The informal talks carried out last week by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in various European capitals, flagged up considerable difficulties over the question of the freedom of movement of Europeans and the restrictions on access to benefits sought by Cameron, the news agency Reuters reported on Sunday 22 November.
Cameron wants to make access to social benefits conditional on living and working on British soil for at least four years. However, this is not the direction the European Commission seems to be going in when it presents a package in early December of new legislative measures on the mobility of employment in the EU (see EUROPE 11430). The British Prime Minister also hopes to ensure that nationals of all future member states of the EU are entitled to the freedom of movement and access to the employment market of the other member states only if their countries are economically convergent and present a similar level.
According to Reuters, many of these European capitals consulted thus far (20/27) opposed Cameron's requests on the integration of the eurozone, subsidiarity, competitiveness and the freedom of movement of the citizens of the EU. The current state of play with the negotiations can be described as being “somewhere between difficult and very difficult”, according to Reuters, quoting a number of diplomatic sources. These sources also believe that the current situation, with terrorist attacks, the migration crisis and attempts to resolve the conflict in Syria, will not help these negotiations along.
Tusk is to report back in December on the state of progress with these negotiations. On 12 November, at the Valletta summit, he warned that the negotiations would be “very difficult” and that an agreement on these demands by December was “not guaranteed”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)