British Prime Minister David Cameron met yesterday with French President Francois Hollande after EU chief Donald Tusk warned there was a “real” danger of the 28-nation bloc breaking up over a “Brexit”.
As Cameron arrived in the French capital to discuss Britain’s EU renegotiation ahead of a key summit this week, Tusk warned Europe was at a “critical moment”.
“It is high time we started listening to each other’s arguments more than to our own,” Tusk said during a visit to Romania to discuss Britain’s membership of the European Union.
The EU is trying to broker a series of reforms to Britain’s relationship with the bloc ahead of a looming “in-out” referendum on EU membership that could be held in the UK as early as June.
British officials hope a deal can be nailed down at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday that could prevent the possibility of Britain exiting the EU.
In London, Cameron’s spokeswoman said: “We have made progress (on renegotiation) but there’s details to be pinned down.
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” she added.
A deal could pave the way for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the EU or stay in and with it Cameron could support remaining in the bloc.
But some of Cameron’s demands are proving problematic to his European partners. Analysts say France — which with Germany is considered the EU’s engine — is likely to want to see changes in what is being proposed over economic governance.
Cameron had wanted the EU to recognise a series of principles including that countries outside the eurozone like Britain should not face discrimination or disadvantage.
The British prime minister yesterday also spoke to Tusk, who was first in the queue in Paris, meeting Hollande before Cameron arrived.
Asked if he thought a deal could be pushed through this week, Tusk said: “I hope so.”
Cameron’s spokeswoman said Britain was seeking “significant and far-reaching reforms”.
“There are still details to be pinned down and what matters is that we get the substance right,” she added.
In a reminder that whatever deal he strikes is unlikely to satisfy some factions in Britain, the anti-EU UK Independence Party accused Cameron of being a “chicken” after he pulled out of a meeting where UKIP leader Nigel Farage would have been present in Brussels.
Cameron had been expected to attend a meeting of presidents from each of the European Parliament’s groups during a visit to Brussels on Tuesday.
“The prime minister is chicken,” Farage said.
“I received my official documentation this morning to say that I was one of several meeting the PM tomorrow morning and he has now run away.”
Instead, Cameron will only be holding a series of bilateral meetings, including with European parliament president Martin Schulz and three MEPs closely involved with the negotiations.
The meetings are important because even if the bloc’s leaders agree changes in areas including child benefit payments to EU migrants to Britain, as Cameron wants, the European Parliament must still approve the changes.
The ramifications of a British exit from the EU were underlined when the head of HSBC hinted that the global lender could shift its operations to Paris if British voters choose to leave the bloc.
“We are lucky in the sense that we have a major bank in France,” Douglas Flint told BBC radio yesterday.
“So, if we were to leave and if there were to be restrictions, ultimately on the renegotiation of Britain’s position, we have the ability to move activity and people between London and Paris,” he said.
The EU is already facing questions about its future as it struggles with the biggest migration crisis in 70 years, and there are fresh fears about the health of the euro currency.
British foreign secretary Philip Hammond warned Sunday that the EU will “lurch very much in the wrong direction” if Britain votes to leave.
Hammond also predicted that negotiations at this week’s summit “would go to the wire”.