AFP
London

The migrant crisis sweeping Europe could lead to Britain voting to leave the European Union in an upcoming referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron warned in an interview published yesterday.
Cameron is currently touring Europe in an attempt to secure reforms to the 28-member bloc, before campaigning to stay in the EU ahead of the referendum promised before the end of 2017.
However, he said voters could be influenced by the influx of migrants on the continent, fleeing war in the Middle East and north Africa.
“With... the migration crisis, the short-term impact is for people to think, ‘Oh Christ, push Europe away from me, it’s bringing me problems’,” he told Britain’s Spectator magazine.
“I get the temptation for people to say: look, it’s just one thing after another; surely we’d be better off separating ourselves from this organisation? But I think that’s the wrong conclusion to draw.”
The prime minister suggested that longer-term, voters may conclude it would better to remain close to European policy-making in order to deal with the crisis, hinting that he may not call an early referendum.
Britain has agreed to take in 20,000 refugees from camps in countries bordering Syria, but is not part of the official programme to relocate those arriving independently in Europe.
Germany is keen for European partners to take in more, with official figures showing that it registered 964,574 new asylum seekers in the first 11 months of the year.
Britain’s electoral commission yesterday announced that the result of the EU referendum will be declared in Manchester, north west England, rather than London.
Britain’s Interior Minister Theresa May yesterday called a decision by the European Parliament to allow the sharing of airline passenger information an “important step” in combating terrorism.
The EU parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee earlier approved the deal, which will now go before the parliament early next year with approval expected.
The British home secretary said the proposal was “an important step and an example of the co-operation we have already seen between the EU and member states to ensure we can share intelligence and information that is going to help us in this battle against the terrorists”.
Momentum for the proposal has grown following the terror attack, inspired by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, in Paris that killed 130 people.
The system approved by EU lawmakers will require airlines to hand over data on travellers, including travel dates, itinerary, ticket information, contact details, baggage information and credit card details.
The European Union began discussions on a Passenger Name Record (PNR) system in 2010 but misgivings about the use and security of personal data held up progress.
Many members of the European Parliament were doubly suspicious after revelations about mass US intelligence snooping.
“We cannot wait any longer to put this system in place,” said Timothy Kirkhope, the British Conservative MEP who is steering the legislation through parliament.
May made her comments at a London conference where six major EU states and the United States agreed “resolute” action to tackle the threat of IS, also known as Daesh.
“All of the countries represented here today share the same values of respect, tolerance and democracy,” she said.
“We are united in our determination to combat terrorism through a strong yet proportionate national and international response to tackling the threat posed by Daesh and countering violent extremism and radicalisation.”
Polish and British leaders yesterday clashed over a key proposed EU reform of welfare benefits currently enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of Polish migrant workers.
“There are points on which we aren’t in full agreement,” Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo told reporters after talks with British counterpart David Cameron in Warsaw in response to a question on the state benefits.
Cameron last month formally laid out a list of demands to his European Union counterparts which include the controversial bid to prevent EU migrants from claiming certain state benefits during their first four years in the country.
Szydlo listed several “completely acceptable” British demands, including giving more power to national parliaments and reducing European bureaucracy but said further talks were needed on the welfare issue.
“Poland is waiting on creative proposals from Britain” on the issue, presidential advisor Krzysztof Szczerski later said, adding that the proposals were expected within “several months, not weeks.”
Speaking alongside Szydlo, Cameron for his part said “even on the most difficult issue of welfare, we have agreed to work together to find a solution.”
“I support the principle of free movement, and I greatly value the contribution that many Poles and other Europeans make to Britain,” he added.
“The challenge is the scale of the vast movement of people we’ve seen across Europe over the last decade and the pressure that that can put on public services.”