BRUSSELS, February 19: David Cameron struggled at a European Union summit on Friday to overcome last pockets of resistance to a deal designed to keep Britain in the 28-nation bloc, with diplomats forecasting an agreement within hours.
“We are moving forward but we are not yet at a stage where a deal is almost done,” a British official told reporters after the British Prime Minister held all-night negotiations with top EU officials and a handful of leaders with specific objections to the draft text.
Cameron was hoping to fly home and chair a cabinet meeting later on Friday to endorse what he calls a “new settlement” with the EU, setting in motion plans to call a referendum on Britain’s future in the Union, probably for June 23.
The stakes are high for both Britain and the EU, with opinion polls showing voters almost evenly split.
The risks of Cameron’s strategy were highlighted on Friday when an opinion poll showed the campaign to leave the bloc had a two-percent lead with 36 percent support. The TNS poll showed 34 percent of British voters wanted to stay in the bloc, 7 percent would not vote and 23 percent were undecided.
All sides at the summit said the toughest issue remained Britain’s drive to restrict welfare benefits for migrant workers from other EU countries, with east European states fighting to preserve the rights of expatriates already working in the UK and elsewhere.
In a reminder of the complex bargaining of EU politics, a Greek government official said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had also warned he could block a British deal if he failed to secure new assurances on dealing with Europe’s migration crisis.
Summit chairman Donald Tusk, who had hoped to wrap up a deal at an “English breakfast” at 10 a.m. (0900 GMT), pushed back the resumption of the group meeting until after 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) for what aides dubbed an “English lunch”. Further delays then put that back to 3:30 p.m.-Reuters
