Donald Tusk’s letter to European Council members highlights the choice that David Cameron faces in his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe. Either he insists that EU leaders meet his demand of a four year block on benefits for new migrants, thereby delaying the process, or he drops the demand in order to get consensus on the matter and then faces the prospect of selling a ‘new relationship’ that doesn’t look all that new and doesn’t contain a key change that most voters will understand.
Tusk’s letter goes through Cameron’s four demands for reform. On the first three, he is reasonably positive, suggesting room for changes in the arrangements for non-euro members, ‘strong determination to promote’ competitiveness in the EU, and sympathy for demands on the role of national parliaments and ‘various paths of integration for different countries’.
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