British prime minister David Cameron said on Friday that "not enough" progress has yet been made on negotiations with the European Union, despite growing expectations that a breakthrough on Britain's renegotiation of its relationship with the EU is imminent.
Speaking following a meeting with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels, Mr Cameron said that, while progress had been made, he was not sure if a deal could be struck by February.
“We’ve made some progress today, it’s not enough,” the prime minister said. “I can’t be certain we’ll get there in February, but I’ll work as hard as I can to deliver a good deal for the British people.”
Following months of legal wrangling, EU officials have proposed an “emergency” brake that would allow countries to curb in-work benefits to migrants should their welfare system be deemed to be under “exceptional” strain from immigration.
The compromise measure is intended to address the British prime minister’s most contentious demand – changes to in-work benefits for EU migrants living in Britain.
But the proposal is a departure from Mr Cameron’s original demand for a total ban on in-work benefits from migrants until they have been working in Britain for four years. It also remains unclear how much power other EU members would have to trigger the brake.
Already on Friday there were signs of resistance from some east European member states towards the proposal. Poland's foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski indicated his government's opposition to any plan that would curb benefits to Polish citizens.
“[Poland] will not accept a mechanism that denies social benefits to Poles living in the European Union,” he said.
However, the Czech secretary of state for European affairs, Tomas Prouza, said the emergency brake proposal was a good one as it would allow all member states to apply the brake if needed.
Speaking in Brussels, where he also held talks with European Parliament president Martin Schulz, Mr Cameron told the BBC that the proposal as it stood was "not good enough" but that progress was being made.
“We want to end the idea of something for nothing. People said that was impossible, there is now a proposal on the table. It is not good enough, it needs more work but we are making progress,” he said.
Britain's bid to renegotiate its relationship with the European Union enters a new phase this weekend as European Council president Donald Tusk travels to London on Sunday for talks with Mr Cameron.
The former Polish prime minister is leading the EU’s negotiations with Britain ahead of its planned referendum on EU membership.
There is now growing expectation that a final legal text outlining the terms of Britain’s revised relationship with the EU may be circulated to the EU’s other 27 leaders and their representatives by early next week, which would technically allow time for a possible deal to be endorsed by EU leaders at their February summit in just under three weeks’ time.
The possibility of a second summit in February is also likely, while Mr Cameron will travel to Hamburg for talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel on February 12th in a bid to shore up political support for a deal.
With the government obliged to give approximately 16 weeks’ notice before holding the referendum, a deal at EU level would be needed by the end of February if a referendum is to be held by the end of June, which is understood to be Mr Cameron’s preferred referendum date.
Speaking following his meeting with Mr Cameron, Mr Schulz who said he was hopeful a deal would be done by mid-February.
“We are now entering a very decisive moment in preparing the referendum,” he said, adding that some of Britain’s proposals were “common sense”: “We must be more transparent, more democratic, more effective, more competitive,” he said.
