UK's Cameron meets EU leaders on referendum reform push

David Cameron will be meeting EU leaders to secure concession ahead of the British referendum that will ask voters: if Britain should remain in the 28-nation bloc.

LONDON // British prime minister David Cameron starts a whirlwind two-day tour of European capitals including Paris and Berlin on Thursday in a push to secure EU reforms before a referendum on whether Britain should leave the 28-nation bloc.

Mr Cameron will meet his counterpart in the Netherlands Mark Rutte for lunch in the Hague before having dinner with French president Francois Hollande in Paris.

On Friday, Mr Cameron will hold talks with Polish premier Ewa Kopacz in Warsaw before flying to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Britain will soon hold a referendum asking voters: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?”

The vote, which is going ahead after Mr Cameron’s centre-right Conservatives won a clear majority at this month’s general election, is scheduled to take place before 2017 but could come as early as next year.

Before he left, an official said that there were “27 nuts to crack” if Mr Cameron was to secure his concessions, which he says will require treaty change, before the referendum.

But in a sign that Mr Cameron could face some obstacles during his trip, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday that the referendum was “very risky” and “quite dangerous”.

Mr Fabius added that you could not “join a football club and decide in the middle of the match we are now going to play rugby”.

At a summit featuring EU leaders in Riga last week, Mr Cameron said he expected “ups and downs” in the renegotiation process and admitted he was not met with a “wall of love” when he arrived.

The House of Commons will start debating the referendum bill, which was published on Thursday and formally lays the groundwork for the vote, on June 9.

It will be the second full bill which parliament debates following the election.

Mr Cameron said on Wednesday that he hoped the law would pass through parliament in “extra quick time”.

The EU Referendum Bill was a “concrete step” in settling the issue, said a source from Downing Street.

“It will pave the way for the British people to have their say for the first time in 40 years on our place in the EU,” the source said.

“The question is clear. It will be for voters to decide whether to stay or leave.”

Foreign secretary Philip Hammond said there would need to be “a substantial package of reform” on Europe.

“If we are not able to deliver on these big areas of concern that the British people have, we will not win the referendum when it comes,” he told BBC radio.

Mr Cameron intends to speak to every leader of the 28-nation EU before a summit in Brussels next month which is expected to discuss the proposed British reforms.

A planned stop in Copenhagen for talks with Danish premier Helle Thorning-Schmidt on Thursday was cancelled after she called a general election for June 18.

Mr Cameron wants to secure a string of reforms from the EU before the referendum including making it harder for EU migrants to claim state benefits in Britain and opting out of the commitment to “ever closer union”.

If he can secure these, he says he will campaign to stay in the EU. Most opinion polls currently suggest voters would also back remaining part of the bloc.

* Agence France-Presse