Cameron's referendum promise 'not directed at Europe' says Polish PM

photo - PR

“Ninety nine percent of Prime Minister David Cameron's speech on the future of the UK in the EU was for internal use,” PM Donald Tusk said Friday.

David Cameron made his long-awaited speech on Britain's future in the EU on Wednesday, where he promised a chance to vote in a referendum on a promised renegotiation of Britain's membership of the 27-nation bloc in 2017.

Donald Tusk believes, however, that the speech, which has met with a critical reception from both the UK's main opposition Labour Party and from the junior coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, was “not really a message to us, to other Europeans, but rather to his party and voters”.

Cameron has been trying to fend off opposition to the EU from right-wing members of the Conservative Party and from a growing disenchantment with the European Union from British voters, who, in an opinion poll commissioned by The Times newspaper said they would vote by 53% to 47% to leave the European Union if a referendum was held this week.

PM Cameron was vague on what the “renegotiation of terms” will actually mean in his speech on Wednesday, but Donald Tusk said that, as a “long-time observer of the British at the European Council” his call for “special status” within the union was “not a surprise”.

“He repeated [in his speech] demands he has made at meetings in Brussels," Tusk said.

The EU's big-guns, France and Germany have warned off Britain demanding an ‘a la carte’ EU.

“Being a member of the European Union involves obligations,” said Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, spokeswoman for French President Francois Hollande.

Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, while saying that the UK could not 'cherry-pick' bits of the EU it liked and reject the rest, held out an olive branch by saying that she hoped for a “fair compromise” to the issue. (pg)

source: IAR/agencies