Merkel Toughens Position on Britain’s E.U. Demands 

Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, under mounting pressure from anti-European populists, continued to insist on new measures limiting the right of Europeans to live and work there.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has indicated that she is prepared to contemplate a future for the European Union without Britain, if Prime Minister David Cameron insists on new measures to limit the rights of Europeans to live and work there, German news media reported on Monday.

Mr. Cameron, who faces a general election in the spring, and is feeling strong pressure from the anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party, has promised to set out his proposals by Christmas.

Under mounting pressure from anti-European populists and the right wing of his own party, Mr. Cameron has steadily toughened his stance against the terms of Britain’s membership in the European Union, which he has vowed to let the voters decide in a 2015 referendum. He is gambling that other countries want to keep Britain in the bloc so much they will grant him substantial concessions.

Ms. Merkel wants to prevent a British exit from the union, but limiting the ability of Europeans to move freely throughout its 28 nations would breach a fundamental principle, unidentified government sources told Der Spiegel magazine last weekend. Ms. Merkel, it reported, feared Britain’s policy on Europe was near a “point of no return.”

Asked on Monday whether Ms. Merkel had drawn “a red line” with Mr. Cameron over immigration quotas, her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, described freedom of movement as one of the cardinal principles of the European Union.

“We see this as a valuable achievement,” he said. “For Germany, the freedom of movement is not negotiable.”

By contrast, Helen Bower, a spokeswoman for Mr. Cameron, told reporters in London that the issue was “about realizing that free movement should not be an unqualified right and returning it to a more sensible basis.”

The rift, coming little more than six months before he faces the voters, highlights how Mr. Cameron is being squeezed between the political forces on his right — including the rise of the anti-European U.K. Independence Party — and the unwillingness of Ms. Merkel and other European leaders to give up their commitment to an ever-more-integrated union.

“He’s in a tricky corner,” said Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “On the one hand his party is in such a febrile mood. Yet he has put all his eggs in one basket — Merkel.”

In both London and Berlin officials point out that Ms. Merkel has long defended Europeans’ freedom of movement — something that could anyway only be changed with the agreement of all 28 European Union nations. Despite press speculation that Mr. Cameron wants to impose quotas on European migrants, formal proposals have yet to emerge.

Source: NYT-Merkel Toughens Position on Britain’s E.U. Demands

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