Officials are seeking ways to allow UK prime minister to declare victory on immigration issue without tampering with EU treatyIf David Cameron has a plan B to set before the leaders of Europe that buys him a ticket to a winning referendum,there is slight sign of it surfacing. British negotiators deny point-empty that there is such a gift ready to be conjured out of a pre-Christmas hamper on Friday morning.
But it is increasingly clear that the prime minister will need one, whatever name it goes under. As he arrived for the biggest EU summit of his time in office on Thursday – a assembly that will go some way to deciding Britain’s European future – the leaders of the rest of the continent lined up to reject, and politely but firmly,the centrepiece of his negotiating package, the attempt to reduce EU migration to Britain by withholding in-work benefits for four years from arrival.
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Source: theguardian.com