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Merkel urges UK to stay in EU

Xinhua, November 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the United Kingdom on Tuesday to stay in the European Union, saying that the UK's concerns were shared by the rest of the bloc.

"I agree that the UK should remain a member of the European Union," said Merkel in a business event in Berlin. "We will do everything we can to make this happen."

The UK is scheduled to held a referendum by the end of 2017 to decide whether to leave the 28-member EU.

Merkel said it was up to the British people to decide in the end, but "we can say that where there are justified concerns, more competitiveness or functioning of the EU, the British concerns are our concerns too."

Addressing the same event after Merkel, British Finance Minister George Osborne said "the British people do not want to be part of an ever closer union" and a concept of further political integration "is now supported by a tiny minority voters."

He added that the UK want the EU to reform so that "we should not discriminate against any business on the basis of the currency of the country in which they reside" and "we must never let tax-payers in countries that are not in the euro bear the cost for supporting countries in the euro zone."

"Let me be candid: there is a deal to be done and we can work together," Osborne said.

"Rather than stand in your way, or veto the Treaty amendments required, we, in Britain, can support you in the euro zone make the lasting changes that you need to see to strengthen the euro."

"In return, you can help us make the changes we need to safeguard the interests of those economies who are not in the euro zone," he said. Endit