David Cameron uses EU summit to campaign for pre-referendum reforms
Talks with Cameron ‘always difficult’ admits European Parliament President Martin Schulz ahead of talks
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday began his campaign to persuade European leaders to make changes to the European Union before he holds a referendum to decide whether Britain should stay in or quit the bloc.
Cameron was due to hold talks with European Council President Donald Tusk and a handful of EU government heads on the sidelines of a European Union summit with six ex-Soviet republics in Latvia.
There were no formal meetings planned with EU power brokers Germany and France but Cameron will travel to Berlin and Paris next week for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande, British officials said.
Cameron said the negotiations would have “ups and downs”.
“But one thing throughout all of this will be constant and that is my determination to deliver for the British people a reform of the EU so they get a proper choice in that referendum,” he told reporters on arrival at the summit.
Cameron’s Conservatives won an unexpected parliamentary majority in a May 7 election and he is now committed to a pledge to hold a referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017.