UK PM meets EU’s Tusk for crunch talks

British Prime Minister David Cameron meets EU president Donald Tusk at Downing Street on Sunday as negotiations reach a decisive point ahead of a referendum on whether Britain should leave the bloc.

The working dinner comes before Mr Tusk is expected to publish draft proposals early this week for how to reform Britain’s relationship with the EU, which Mr Cameron can then use to campaign against a so-called “Brexit”.

British officials hope that a final deal can be nailed down at a Brussels summit being held on February 18 and 19. That could then open the door to a referendum in June.

But Mr Cameron insists that he is willing to hold out for as long as it takes to secure the right package of reforms, if necessary delaying the referendum to September or even 2017.

Opinion polls currently suggest that Britons would vote to leave the EU by a small margin.

Mr Tusk’s visit comes after Mr Cameron held a hastily-arranged meeting with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday to try and resolve the British leader’s main concern — reducing the number of EU migrants coming to Britain.

Mr Tusk arrived in London on Sunday afternoon accompanied by his full negotiation team, an EU source said.

“I don’t expect Tusk to offer future treaty change on free movement” of people, the source said.

Mr Cameron wants to be able to use an “emergency brake” to curb the amount of benefits payments which migrants can claim.

He emerged from the talks with Mr Juncker saying that, while there had been “progress”, the proposal on the table was “not good enough”.

At Sunday’s meeting with Mr Tusk, Mr Cameron will demand the right to use the “emergency brake” immediately after any referendum vote to stay in the EU, British newspapers said on Sunday.

He will reportedly add that the current “emergency brake” proposal does not go far enough and could only be a stopgap solution.

Mr Cameron has set out four areas in which he wants reform — migrant benefits, safeguards against more political integration in the EU, protection of countries like Britain which do not use the euro currency and boosting economic competitiveness.

The main sticking point has been Mr Cameron’s insistence that EU migrants employed in Britain must wait four years before claiming certain welfare payments.