Britain's PM Cameron to meet Italy's Renzi on EU reform push

June 12, 2015 12:42 PM

Cameron has promised to negotiate a new settlement with Brussels and hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU by the end of 2017.

Britain's PM Cameron to meet Italy's Renzi on EU reform push

Prime Minister David Cameron will meet Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi next week to discuss his plan to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the European Union ahead of a membership referendum.

Cameron, elected for a second term last month, is due to set out his reform plans in more detail at a summit of EU leaders in Brussels at the end of the month and has said he hopes to hold preliminary talks with each of them before that.

After talks with the leaders of Spain, Finland, Romania and Belgium on Thursday, he has now met with about half of them. As well as Italy, Cameron is due to visit Luxembourg next week.

The reception so far has been mixed. Earlier this month German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to work to clinch a deal that would keep Britain in the EU, but Friday's British newspapers were full of tales of rebuff from the latest talks.

Cameron has said he believes changes to EU treaties will be needed to achieve some of the reforms he is seeking, such as restricting EU migrants' access to British welfare benefits.

British media reported that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told Cameron they were opposed to treaty change, while Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said they would seek a solution to Britain's concerns but they did not want discriminatory measures on welfare.

"We don't underestimate that this is going to take time and patience," Cameron's spokeswoman said.