Tusk unveils proposal to keep Britain in EU

PanARMENIAN.Net - EU president Donald Tusk on Tuesday, February 2 unveiled key proposals to keep Britain in the bloc, including a four-year brake on benefit payments for migrant workers and protection for counties that do not use the euro currency, AFP reports.

Tusk sent the proposals for a "new settlement" to European capitals, firing the starting gun for two weeks of frantic negotiations with the other 27 European Union leaders to secure a deal at a summit on February 18-19.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who wants a deal so he can hold a referendum in June on his country's membership of the EU, said Tusk's proposal "shows real progress" but added that "more work" was needed.

"To be, or not to be together, that is the question... My proposal for a new settlement for #UKinEU," Tusk tweeted, adapting a famous quote from English playwright William Shakespeare's "Hamlet."

The proposals will not take effect until Britain avoids a "Brexit" and votes to stay in the EU in the referendum, the draft adds, according to AFP.

Despite concerns from France, Tusk's plan also includes a "mechanism" by which the nine countries that are not in the euro can raise concerns and be given "necessary reassurances" about decisions by the eurozone.

But he stressed that the mechanism "cannot constitute a veto nor delay urgent decisions" - adding that the conditions for triggering the mechanism had to be discussed before the summit.