David Cameron has received a boost to his EU renegotiation plans after Angela Merkel left the door open to revising the Lisbon treaty to accommodate British demands.
On the final stage of Mr. Cameron’s two-day tour of four European capitals, the German Chancellor adopted an emollient tone as she expressed the hope that a deal could be agreed with Britain. “Wherever there is a desire, there is also a way, and this should be our guiding principle here,” Ms. Merkel said after talks at the German Chancellery in Berlin.
Mr. Cameron travelled to Berlin after one of his central demands — banning EU migrants from claiming in-work benefits for four years — was given a frosty reception in Warsaw by his Polish counterpart Ewa Kopacz. A statement on Ms. Kopacz’s website said that she had told Mr. Cameron she “strongly opposed measures that may lead to discrimination against Poles and other EU citizens seeking legal employment in the U.K.”
But Ms. Merkel, who will be the central figure in the negotiations that will take place round the table of the European Council of EU leaders, was more positive. The German chancellor said she accepted the Prime Minister’s call for the EU to recognise that some member states do not feel comfortable with greater European integration, as she acknowledged there is a two-speed Europe.
She also suggested that she might be open to revising the Lisbon treaty. Government lawyers have advised Mr. Cameron, who has spoken of the need for “full-on” treaty change, that he will need to underpin his benefit changes in a revised treaty.
But the German Chancellor made clear that it is important to agree on the substance of reform before deciding on the mechanism for delivering the change. She made it clear that she hoped Britain will remain in the EU, though she said it was a matter for U.K. voters to decide in the referendum. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2015
