Baku-APA. Prime Minister David Cameron took the floor at a European Union summit on Thursday to try to persuade fellow leaders to give Britain improved membership terms, including disputed relief from immigration, before it votes on staying in the bloc, APA reports quoting Reuters.
EU officials said Cameron began his pitch after European Council President Donald Tusk told the summit there was good progress on three of London's four key demands, but the fourth - to deny EU migrants in-work benefits for four years - was "very difficult".
Other leaders around the dinner table want to help Cameron ensure Britain chooses to stay in the EU in a referendum due within two years, with opinion polls showing the number of Britons wishing to leave is growing.
But the Conservative leader faced an uphill struggle to win agreement on curbing welfare payments to EU migrants to try to reduce immigration, a proposal several leaders, especially from eastern Europe, say breaks the fundamental EU principles.
"Tonight, here in Brussels, we are going to have a conversation dedicated to Britain's renegotiation of its position in Europe and I want to see real progress in all of the four areas that I have mentioned," he told reporters on arrival, referring to four topics on which he wants to negotiate change.
"We're not pushing for a deal tonight but we're pushing for real momentum so that we can get this deal done. So I will be battling for Britain right through the night and I think we'll be getting a good deal."
Over filet of venison with parsnip mousse and Szechuan pepper jus, the British prime minister sought to convince fellow leaders that the continued membership of Europe's second biggest economy and one of its two top military powers hinges on finding a convincing solution to the sensitive immigration question.
Cameron says he wants Britain to stay in the EU, but has hinted he could campaign for an exit if he fails to win an agreement that can reduce the influx of EU migrants, improve business competitiveness, give more sovereignty back to Britain and protect London's banks from discrimination by the euro zone.
His proposal to make immigrants from the other 27 EU states wait four years before claiming "in-work" benefits in Britain - income supplements to people in lower paid jobs - has been roundly criticized, especially in eastern Europe, for breaking EU law banning discrimination.
An EU aide said Tusk wanted to give everyone a chance to speak their mind on Thursday night with a view to seeking a deal at the next summit in mid-February.
Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, known as the Visegrad Group, said in a statement they would reject any British demand to change EU laws that would mean discrimination against their citizens or limit their freedom of movement.
For many Europeans born behind the Iron Curtain, that freedom is a touchstone of their post-Cold War liberation.
A British official said Cameron was offering no alternatives to his four-year proposal at the summit, but the prime minister was eager to hear whether other leaders had other suggestions that would help control immigration to Britain better.
An EU diplomat said Cameron sat in silence for more than three hours while other EU leaders debated how to deal with a wave of migrants that has divided European governments. Britain has refused to take in any from Europe.
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