Brussels, 30/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, met the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, on the evening of Sunday 29 November, just after the EU/Turkey summit, to discuss the state of progress with the British renegotiation, a dossier which will be dealt with at the European summit of 17 and 18 December.
One of the objectives of this meeting was to decide between the two options, a European source explained: the first option would be to work towards an agreement in December on the British demands and to table a proposal to this effect; the second would be to opt instead for an in-depth political discussion with the decision postponed until later.
According to this source, the recent series of consultations carried out by Donald Tusk and the European capitals has in any case confirmed that at this stage, there are still “major problems” with this dossier. Amongst other things, the governments have issues over Cameron's demands to make access for foreigners to social benefits conditional on residence on British soil for a period of four years.
According to a spokesperson to the British government, quoted by Bloomberg, the two men agreed on an in-depth discussion in December, but the spokesperson declined to specify whether the outcome would be a decision.
The Polish government has stated that it is prepared to support most of the British demands in order to keep the UK in the EU. However, it will oppose any decision limiting the social benefits currently received by Polish migrants.
The Polish Minister for European affairs, Konrad Szymanski, said on Sunday that Poland is able to get behind the United Kingdom's calls to “modify the treaties”, or even to “review the architecture of the treaties”. However, it would be “unacceptable” to make changes to the freedom of movement and establishment or the principle of non-discrimination, he said in Brussels.
Late on Sunday evening, David Cameron was also to meet the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, whose country will hold the Presidency of the Council of the EU from 1 January 2016. A bilateral meeting was also scheduled for Monday afternoon between Cameron and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on the sidelines of COP 21 in Paris. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Jan Kordys)