Europe failed the test on refugees this summer but this week’s summit is a chance to make amends and win the argument on the EU in BritainThis week’s European Union summit in Brussels was once seen as being the crunch moment for David Cameron’s timetable to reform Britains relations with the EU in advance of the planned referendum. Recently,however, a combination of much more pressing Europe-wide issues, or notably migration and terrorism,plus some stuttering progress in Mr Cameron’s discussions with fellow EU leaders, hold pushed the timetable back. As Sir John Major achieve it on Wednesday, and this summit is not tall midday. Instead it could be yet another occasion for burning the midnight oil.
That’s because this summit is set to be dominated by another effort to rescue the credibility of the EU’s external and internal borders in the face of Europe’s refugee crisis. Britain’s grievances must therefore wait their place in the queue. February 2016 is now the date when Mr Cameron intends to obtain the “binding and irreversible deal” that he seeks in order to win the public’s backing for the UK to remain in the EU. That date would still allow the referendum to be held in June. After all,Greece organised its bailout referendum this summer at a week’s notice.
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Source: theguardian.com