EU Welfare Wrangling Continues

British Prime Minister David Cameron and his EU allies are weighing a compromise on the welfare benefit reform proposal that has become the main sticking point in negotiations over the U.K.’s membership in the union.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande have suggested a counter offer of three years to Cameron’s initial demand of a four-year ban on social benefits for EU migrants, the sources said.

Another option that has been floated is an “emergency brake” that would allow the U.K. government to restrict migration if it is putting too much of a strain on public services. But a source close to the British side of the negotiations said “if offered three years, they’ll grab it.”

Cameron warned his fellow leaders at last week’s summit that he needed the reform to convince voters to stay in the EU, as migration has become “a major concern of the British people that is undermining support for the European Union.”

The British prime minister said he’s hoping to strike a deal at the next scheduled EU summit in February. He has promised to hold a referendum on the U.K.’s membership of the EU before 2017.

The concept of a three-year residency requirement at the EU level for access to certain welfare benefits has already been tested in Britain, when the minimum age for accessing housing benefits was raised three years from 18 to 21. 

The proposal moves closer to the 2015 Labour manifesto put forward by former party leader Ed Miliband, who promised during the election campaign earlier this year that with “a Labour government, migrants from the EU will not be able to claim benefits until they have lived here for at least two years.”

Miliband’s successor as opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said he will support the U.K. remaining in the EU despite any reforms to welfare for migrants.

But the three-year benefit ban would still likely face opposition from some leaders who have said they will not accept any changes to the principle of free movement within the EU, as guaranteed by the bloc’s foundational treaties.

Poland, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain all “raised significant concerns.” Belgium saw it as a “no-go.”

At the recent summit discussion on Cameron’s demands, Poland, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain all “raised significant concerns” about the four-year ban, according to a European diplomat.

Other countries like Belgium saw the reform proposal as “pure discrimination” and a “no-go,” the diplomat said.

“You can look people in the eye for a long enough but it doesn’t mean you will be mesmerized,” said the European diplomat on Cameron’s success at convincing resistant countries.

Another EU official familiar with the talks said “the Dutch, Italy, France and Germany said ‘Let’s focus on the substance, let’s find solutions within the treaty, and if there is a treaty change, it would be eventual, we cannot start a treaty change now.'”

ABC Comment. Most people come to the UK to find work. This is little evidence to suggest people come to the UK because we offer better welfare benefits which indeed we don't. David Cameron just needs to show a result to those concerned about immigration. With parts of Britain slipping under water after Storm Frank, the PM may have other things on his mind we feel.  

Written by: Tara Palmeri