UK PM hails ‘pathway’ to European deal

Cameron hints at referendum in 2016

Prime Minister David Cameron said he could see a pathway to a deal to keep Britain in the European Union after EU leaders told him at a summit in Brussels they would not accept discrimination against EU migrant workers in the UK.

“Nothing is certain in life, nor in Brussels, but what I would say is there is a pathway to a deal in February,” Mr Cameron told a press conference early on Friday after a substantial discussion of Britain’s demands to renegotiate the terms of its membership of the bloc before a referendum on whether to stay.

He also gave his strongest suggestion yet that he hopes to hold the referendum in 2016, before a self-imposed two-year deadline.

“I believe that 2016 will be the year we achieve something really vital, fundamentally changing the UK’s relationship with the EU and finally addressing the concerns of the British people about our membership,” Mr Cameron said.

In his longest address in more than five years of attending EU summits, the Conservative leader told the 27 other national leaders over dinner that if they wanted to keep Britain in, they must address his voters’ concerns about curbing immigration.

European Council president Donald Tusk, who chaired the session, had said that he was more optimistic after the discussion that an accord could be reached in February on all four key British demands because Mr Cameron was looking for a “fair compromise”.

He said Britain’s bid to deny EU migrants access to in-work benefits — an income supplement for the lower paid — for four years had caused the most difficulty.

The clearest message from the talk was that no one — including Mr Cameron — was ready to accept discrimination, Mr Tusk said: “This is unacceptable and for sure this is not the intention of our British partner.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most influential leader, said there was a widespread will to reach an agreement to keep Britain in the EU.

“We made it clear that we are ready to compromise, but always on the basis that we safeguard the core European principles, which include non-discrimination and free movement,” she said.

EU leaders set an end-of-June deadline to agree on a new border and Coast Guard force to slow the influx of migrants across the bloc’s porous external frontiers.

Leaders also urged EU ambassadors to arrange for the rapid delivery of a promised $3.25 billion in aid for refugees in Turkey in return for its help in stemming the flow.

Following a slew of emergency summits in 2015, they acknowledged they had been too slow to carry out a joint strategy to tackle Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II. “Implementation is insufficient and has to be speeded up,” the leaders declared on Thursday in the conclusions on migration at the summit.

On Friday, they vowed to step up the fight against terrorism in the wake of the Paris attacks, wrapping up a dramatic 2015 plagued by a series of crises.

“I am under no illusions,” said European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker as he arrived for the second day of the talks when asked on his hopes for a smoother 2016.

European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday that the EU should offer visa-free short-stay travel to the bloc for Ukraine, Georgia and Kosovo, all three locked in bitter disputes with Russia. “The Commission this morning took a positive position on the liberalisation of visas for Georgia, Kosovo and Ukraine,” Mr Juncker said.