Brussels: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected British Prime Minister David Cameron's plan to strip EU migrants of their benefits for four years. French President François Hollande talked to Cameron over dinner and told him there can be “no flexibility” over the rights of EU workers. Diplomats said he also told the Prime Minister to “think of alternatives”, in what seemed to lead to a major confrontation.
Refusing to back down, the British PM told his 27 counterparts that he needs a treaty change to secure a number of reforms on welfare, protecting the economy from eurozone integration and exempt Britain from the principle of ever-closer union. While months of negotiations between technocrats in Brussels over the four-year policy have been fruitless, Cameron hoped to break the deadlock by giving a lengthy presentation to other delegates on how British schools and hospitals are currently struggling to cope with hundreds of thousands of European migrants. Despite arguments that his plan does not match with European membership, Cameron offered a no compromise solution and expected none in return. British lawyers had prepared a five-line draft treaty change they want, which Cameron presented to President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, two weeks ago.
Cameron said the task ahead was very tough, and emphasised that he had not taken his widely rejected demand for a four-year ban on EU migrants receiving UK in-work benefit off the negotiating table. But other EU leaders said he had backtracked by accepting he could not discriminate against citizens of other EU member states. Tusk said he did not want to sound too dramatic in advance, but the meeting had been “a make-or-break moment. The most important thing was atmosphere and goodwill”. Tusk accepted the issue of welfare and free movement remained “the most delicate and difficult. We have to respect what David Cameron has said and we have to respect some members’ needs,” he said.
Cameron said the British government was attempting “something very tough by holding a referendum at a time of our choosing with a mandate from the British people”. Insisting there was momentum behind his campaign, he added there was “enormous support for keeping the UK in the EU”. He urged the leaders to recognise the unique nature of the British problem on migration, and its impact on the welfare of the country.
“The levels of migration we have seen in a relatively short period of time are unprecedented, including the pressures this places on communities and public services. This is a major concern of the British people that is undermining support for the European Union. We need to find an effective answer to this problem. Countries need flexibility so they can make changes to their welfare systems to better manage migration,” he said
The EU leaders rejecting the UK’s proposal for a four-year ban on in-work benefits were led by Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency. He said, “There are clear red lines and I don’t think that many other people will support Mr Cameron in the direction of limiting those values on which Europe has been constructed. He made a series of proposals, but there are also limits that aren’t acceptable to us.”
“There should be possibilities to arrive at solutions if there’s a readiness for movement on all sides,” Angela Merkel, told reporters. “We’d like to preserve Great Britain as a member, without, however, restricting the basic freedoms – non-discrimination, freedom of movement.”