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Cameron's EU veto pledge over mass migration

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Prime Minister tells summit of Europe's leaders Britain will wield a veto unless tougher controls are imposed on free movement ...

 

 

 

 

By Bruno Waterfield

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Cameron will veto any countries from joining the European Union unless long term and tighter restrictions are imposed on them to prevent another “vast migration” of people from Eastern Europe into Britain. 

 

The Prime Minister made his pledge following talks in Brussels on the future of European enlargement as Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Albania line up to begin negotiations to join the EU. 

 

He told a summit of Europe’s leaders that any “accession treaty” given to a new EU member state would require unanimous support and that Britain would wield a veto unless tougher controls were imposed on free movement. 

 

The need for unanimity meant there was “a real opportunity” to “insist on a different approach”, he said. 

 

Mr Cameron said EU members had to “look very carefully” at the “transitional controls” it puts in place for countries joining the union, as he did not “want to see… what has happened in the past, with these vast movements of people”. 

 

If new membership is offered to any of the potential entrants, which are all much poorer countries than the western European average, Britain would insist upon lengthy restrictions that go beyond the seven-year controls on free movement. 

 

“Transitional controls have been a success,” said Mr Cameron. “It has not been a success when countries have not applied transitional controls. And, as I am arguing, we need to go one step further and look at more robust transitional controls in the future.” 

 

EU officials confirmed that it would be possible for Britain to require free movement restrictions for an indefinite period or “as long as you like” as part of the conditions of a future accession treaty. 

 

“Linking transitional controls to the percentage of GDP or wage rates in a new member state would probably require treaty change,” said an EU source. 

 

The average monthly wage in Britain is almost 10 times that paid in Albania, a Balkan country with 13 per cent unemployment and endemic organised crime. It has applied to be considered for EU membership next year. Mr Cameron said Britain would block Albania’s bid to be a candidate member until it made progress on fighting corruption and would not give the green light before the EU agreed how to tackle free movement. 

 

He praised the idea of EU enlargement as “a huge driver for peace, prosperity and progress”, but said it must return to “what the EU first envisaged: the free movement of workers ready to work hard and get on in life, not the free movement of those after the best benefit deal”. 

 

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