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David Cameron fails to persuade Polish PM over EU welfare proposals David Cameron fails to persuade Polish PM over EU welfare proposals
(35 minutes later)
David Cameron has failed to win over his Polish counterpart in his attempt to change welfare rules in the European Union, following late-night talks in Warsaw. David Cameron has been warned that he faces two months of tough negotiations on his EU proposals after the Polish prime minister said Warsaw did not “see eye to eye” with the UK over plans to restrict access to in-work benefits.
The British prime minister described the discussions with Beata Szydło as “excellent” and said they had agreed to work together to find a solution on the thorny issue of when migrants can claim benefits. In a sign of the deep unease in eastern Europe at the proposed restrictions, Beata Szydlo warned Cameron that the “basic principles” of the EU’s rules on freedom of movement must be respected.
But the Polish prime minister told reporters she did not “see eye to eye” with Cameron on the proposals. The prime minister has spent the last two days visiting Bucharest and Romania before an EU summit in Brussels next week where he had hoped to reach a deal ahead of a referendum on Britain’s EU membership.
At a press conference in the Polish capital, Cameron said: “The challenge is the scale of the vast movement of people we have seen across Europe over the last decade and the pressure that that can put on public services. That is the problem we need to address and I believe with the type of political will I have seen here in Poland we can find a way. But Cameron has agreed to delay the final round of negotiations until the next EU summit in February after Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, said that EU leaders have failed to agree to the plan to ban EU migrants from claiming in-work benefits for four years.
“I want Britain to stay in a reformed European Union and the prime minister has made clear that Poland wants Britain to remain in the EU.” Poland and other eastern European countries, whose citizens would be hit harder than citizens from wealthier member states, believe the ban breaks the EU’s laws on discrimination.
Cameron said the migration crisis could push the UK into voting to leave the EU. He said the short-term impact of the influx of migrants arriving in the EU could be a desire among voters to “push Europe away”. The Polish prime minister warned Cameron not to infringe the EU’s rules on free movement which guarantee the right of EU citizens to travel and seek work across the EU as she said she had raised concerns about the UK’s proposals on “the welfare system and child benefits”.
But in a hint that he might be considering a longer campaign before his promised referendum on EU membership, the prime minister said the “longer-term reaction” to the twin migration and eurozone crises could be to make sure that there was a relationship with Brussels that “works”. In addition to the proposed ban on in-work benefits, the UK is attempting to ban EU migrants working in the UK from sending back child benefit to children back home.
The number of migrants claiming asylum in the EU this year has officially passed one million, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency. The ban on in-work benefits would require treaty change because EU citizens are entitled to be treated in the same way in the workplace, including topups to their wages through tax credits, as UK citizens. Szydlo said: “There are also discussions and issues about which we do not see eye to eye today.”
Cameron was in Poland on the latest leg of his diplomatic offensive to win backing for a package of proposals that he hopes will allow him to recommend the UK remains within the 28-member bloc. But Cameron took heart when Szydlo signalled Poland’s determination to keep its historic wartime ally in the UK. Szydlo spoke of a “common direction” and said was hopeful that a solution could be found to keep the UK in the EU. “I believe that these issues will be further discussed by us. We will be talking about them, we will try to solve them together in consensus.”
A key obstacle is his call for a ban on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits in the UK until they have been in the country for four years, which he hopes will act as a disincentive for citizens of member states seeking to come to Britain. The prime minister moved to reassure his Polish counterpart that he was not seeking to discriminate against Poles in Britain and stressed that he was not seeking to undermine the EU’s founding commitment to free movement.
He said: “Even on the most difficult issue of welfare, we have agreed to work together to find a solution. I support the principle of free movement and I greatly value the contribution that many Poles and other Europeans make to Britain.”
But the prime minister added that the UK needed to impose some restrictions on benefits to reduce migration. EU migrants will effectively be banned from claiming out of work benefits under welfare reforms.
Cameron said: “The challenge is the scale of the vast movement of people we have seen across Europe over the last decade and the pressure that can put on public services. That is the problem we need to address and I believe with the type of political will I have seen here in Poland we can find a way.”
The prime minister had earlier warned that the “migration crisis” might prompt people to support an exit from the EU. He told the Spectator: “I think with both the eurozone crisis and the migration crisis, the short-term impact is for people to think: ‘Oh Christ, push Europe away from me, it’s bringing me problems.’”
But the prime minister added that he hoped that on reflection people might decide to remain in the EU because it is “on our doorstep”.
He added: “I think the longer-term reaction might actually be, well if they are going to have a single currency and they are on our doorstep and they are going to try and make it work, let’s make sure our relationship with them works and then we have safeguards, not least for our vital financial services industry so that the system doesn’t work against us.”