Prime Minister David Cameron launched his bid to recast Britain’s relationship with the EU Friday, warning of “ups and downs” before a straight “in-or-out” referendum by the end of 2017.
On his first overseas trip since winning a general election two weeks ago, Cameron is holding preliminary talks on the sidelines of a summit of the 28-nation bloc and six former Soviet states in the Latvian capital, Riga.
These mark the start of months of negotiations as Cameron tries to persuade other European leaders to accept reforms which he says will require treaty change.
British officials said Cameron would also visit Paris and Berlin for talks, while he could speak to French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines in Riga.
“One thing throughout all of this that will be constant, is my determination to deliver for the British people,” Cameron told reporters on arrival.
“But there will be lots of noise, lots of ups and downs, along the way.”
Cameron promised to hold a referendum two years ago in the face of pressure from eurosceptics in his centre-right Conservative party and rising support for the anti-EU UK Independence Party.
He will campaign to stay in Europe in the referendum as long as he can secure reforms such as making it harder for EU migrants to claim state benefits in Britain.
Britain is a member of the EU but has kept its own currency, the pound, rather than adopting the euro and is not part of the Schengen Area, the group of 26 European countries which have abolished passport and border controls at common borders.
Cameron held a ten-minute bilateral meeting with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz Friday and is also expected to hold talks in Riga with European Council President Donald Tusk on the “process” for renegotiation, British officials said.
He will also hold brief meetings with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Swedish premier Stefan Loefven.
– ‘Chance to join EU family’ –
The focus of the summit is developing the EU’s relationship with the former Soviet states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
European leaders are expected to reaffirm their commitment to developing political and economic ties with the states, according to a draft communique seen by AFP.
They aim to build on a 2013 summit which ended in chaos when Ukraine’s then president, pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, baulked at signing an EU association accord alongside Georgia and Moldova.
His refusal sparked massive pro-EU protests that led to his ouster in February 2014, then to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and a bloody conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s current pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko completed the agreement last year and wants ultimately to join the EU but this is a long-term objective at best.
Merkel, who has led talks on peace in Ukraine with Russia, insisted Thursday that the Eastern Partnership project is “not an instrument” for enlarging the EU.
But she also warned Russia that it could not think of returning to the Group of Seven major industrialised nations as long as it flouted international law in Ukraine, as in Crimea.
The draft declaration condemns the annexation of Crimea, potentially causing problems for Armenia and Belarus who have lost some of their early enthusiasm for the EU and have joined the Eurasian Economic Union promoted by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Around 50 people from Ukraine and Georgia held a protest urging the EU to speed up the process for their countries to join the bloc.
“It’s another chance to state that we are here, we would like to join the EU family and we are ready to be there,” one Georgian, Viktor Baramania, said.
Greece’s precarious debt bailout is also on the agenda as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s leftist government races to obtain fresh funding from international creditors demanding more austerity measures before a June deadline.
Following talks between Tsipras, Merkel and Hollande Thursday, the German chancellor said there was “still a lot to do” in the negotiations.
Tsipras said he was “very optimistic” as he went into the summit Friday but declined further comment.