None of the other 27 leaders spoke in response. He yesterday said that little progress had been made in technical talks running since June.
The Prime Minister has come under growing pressure from his counterparts to provide a detailed, written list of demands, amid claims that Britain’s stance was deliberately vague. “Our British friends have to dance too”.
There were indications the talks are going slowly, partly because of Mr Cameron’s reported reluctance to make specific demands in case he fails to get them and is embarrassed.
Lord Blackwell told politicians in the House of Lords this week that there were “no compelling economic arguments” for Britain staying within the 28 nation bloc.
Bath MP Ben Howlett has been made a political champion for a campaign to keep Britain in the Europe Union.
Mr Cameron said he was confident he could get a good deal for Britain, and the renegotiation is going well.
“We should not be apologetic about this”, said one EPP official involved in the discussions.
At the meeting of EU leaders, European Council president Donald Tusk summed up the preliminary talks that took place between the United Kingdom, the Council and the EU Commission.
It is a tactical victory for Mr Cameron’s counterparts, who had hoped the release of a definitive document would “pin him to a text” and prevent him from “springing” fresh demands on the European Union later in the negotiations. “I have hundreds of thousands willing to be smuggled, ‘” said Gerald Tatzgern, head of Austria’s federal unit combatting human trafficking.
“I can’t say that huge progress has been achieved”, Mr Juncker fumed.
Merkel met with Cameron last weekend.
Vote Leave, which has been dubbed the Westminster Establishment Anti-EU campaign, has lost two millionaire backers recently after Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins and Lord Harris of Peckham quit.
But, criticised for the slow pace of the UK-EU negotiations which kicked off in July, and for the vagueness of the British position, Cameron promptly performed a U-turn. The way out of this little box Cameron has built for himself is for the European Union itself to propose major changes in the way it does business. “He should make those demands publicly and soon”.
The issue will be discussed at an upcoming summit on Thursday, October 15, 2015.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande take part in a meeting at the European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels.
“That there are achievements of European integration that can not be haggled over, for example the principle of free movement and the principle of non-discrimination”.
Mr Cameron is also having lunch with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker ahead of today’s summit.
