Cameron and Tusk fail to reach agreement on EU deal

David Cameron and European Council president Donald Tusk have failed to resolve differences on a proposed "emergency brake" that would enable Britain to delay welfare payments to workers from other EU countries for four years. Leaving Downing Street less than two hours after he arrived for dinner with the prime minister, Mr Tusk said there was "no deal".

Mr Cameron said the two men had “a good meeting”, adding that Mr Tusk had agreed to “another 24 hours of talks” before publishing a draft renegotiating text.

The European Council president had been expected to publish detailed proposals on Britain’s renegotiation of its EU membership on Monday, ahead of a meeting of EU leaders on February 19th.

The emergency brake proposal emerged in Brussels as an alternative to Mr Cameron’s demand for all EU migrants to be required to pay tax in Britain for four years before they could claim benefits. Under the proposal, any EU member-state could call for an emergency brake on welfare payments to workers from other EU countries if they could show that their public services were struggling to cope because of migration.

The decision on whether to approve the emergency brake would rest with EU leaders but Mr Cameron wants an assurance that it could come into force in Britain the day after the forthcoming referendum on Britain’s EU membership. The prime minister hopes to secure a deal this month, opening the way to a referendum as early as June 23rd.

Tory pressure

Eurosceptics have dismissed the prime minister’s demands as inadequate, and Steve Baker, co-chair of the anti-EU Conservatives for Britain group, on Sunday dismissed the renegotiation as a farce.

“People understand they must create ‘victory’ out of whatever they are handed and in this case we think there has been a long series of humiliating capitulations leading to this point,” he told Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News. “It is not going to answer the concerns of the British people. We need the power in our own parliament to determine what our migration policy is.”

A ComRes poll for the Daily Mail at the weekend showed a surge in support for Britain remaining in the EU, with 54 per cent saying they would vote to stay in, compared to 36 per cent who would vote to leave.

Shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn on Sunday accused Mr Cameron of a failure in leadership by risking Britain’s EU membership in a negotiation about the issue of benefits for migrants.

"To have brought the whole future of our relationship with the European Union down to this one issue shows that the prime minister, I think, is missing the big picture," he said.

“The idea that you would say ‘Well, if I don’t get just this one thing in the perfect form I am seeking, then we are off’ is not actually the leadership we should expect from our prime minister.”