BRUSSELS (AP) — The latest reaction to Britain’s demands for European Union reform. All times local.
12:50 p.m.
British finance chief George Osborne says the British government’s proposals will benefit everyone in the EU.
“These are changes that will improve the European Union for all of its citizens so we create more jobs,” he said in Brussels as he arrived for a regular meeting of the EU’s 28 finance ministers.
He said the proposals would also safeguard Britain’s national interests.
Osborne said he would be meeting the eurozone’s top official Jeroen Dijsselbloem and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
“We’re going to sit round the table and the negotiations are going to start and I think we have a real good chance to achieve the reform that we all want to see,” he said.
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12:30 p.m.
The European Commission says that some of the issues raised by British Prime Minister David Cameron to reform the EU are “highly problematic.”
European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Tuesday that some of Cameron’s proposals for talks to make sure that Britain stays in the EU may be feasible but insisted others ranged from “difficult to worse.”
He specifically latched on to proposals where freedom of movement would be limited by allowing the U.K. to restrict benefits for migrants from other member states.
“Some things which are highly problematic as they touch upon the fundamental freedoms of our internal market, direct discrimination between EU citizens clearly falls into this last category,” Schinas said.
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