BRUSSELS: Two senior European politicians have sketched the outline of a possible pre-referendum deal with David Cameron that would allow Britain to become a kind of “low-definition” member of the European Union.
Emmanuel Macron, the French Economy Minister, said that it was time to “accept the idea of a two-speed” Europe in which some countries would stand aside from progress towards greater unity and integration.
Meanwhile, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, a German Social Democrat, urged other members to accept Mr Cameron’s demand for Britain to be exempted from the EU objective of an “ever-closer union”.
Although negotiations are at an early stage, the comments suggest that important political figures in the two most influential countries in Europe are open to a deal which would formalise Britain’s status as a kind of semi-detached member of the EU. Mr Cameron made similar proposals – to a mixed reception – during his two-day, four-capital European tour last week.
Both the French and German politicians made it clear that they were speaking personally. Mr Macron, 37, said that he was talking as a representative of a “younger generation” of European politicians, who wanted to revive the “European dream” and fight the notion that the EU had become irretrievably “dead and technocratic”.
