Could the European Parliament block Cameron’s bid to seal the deal?

David Cameron is having more meetings today to seal his EU deal ready for Thursday and Friday’s EU summit. Though he had ‘constructive discussions’ with President Hollande last night, the Prime Minister hasn’t had as much luck this morning, with European Parliament President Martin Schulz saying this morning that there was ‘no guarantee’ the European Parliament would pass the necessary legislation on the deal. After his meeting with Cameron this morning, Schulz said:

‘I can give you a guarantee that the European Parliament will deal immediately after the referendum to stay in to legislate on the proposal of the Commission. ‘But to be quite clear, no government can go to the Parliament and say: this is our proposal, can you give a guarantee about the result. This is not possible in a democracy.’

Cameron is also meeting Gianni Pittella, Socialist group leader, and Manfred Weber, EPP leader, followed by Jean-Claude Juncker. Getting MEPs to agree to the deal is actually more important than the summit later this week, as no matter what European leaders agree amongst themselves, for that agreement to be legally binding requires the consent of the European Parliament.