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British PM talks with European leaders to push for EU reform

Xinhua, January 30, 2016 Adjust font size:

British Prime Minister David Cameron made phone calls with various European leaders in the last two days, and held further meetings with some of them to discuss EU reform, Downing Street announced Friday.

Cameron spent the day focused on the EU renegotiation with "many constructive phone calls and meetings", according to Downing Street.

On Thursday night and Friday morning, Cameron called the Prime Ministers of Denmark and Sweden respectively, before meeting with the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels for a working lunch.

"They discussed the state of play in the negotiations and the Prime Minister underlined that while there had been progress, there was still a lot more work to do. They spent some time on the trickiest issue of welfare," a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.

They also discussed the further progress that is still required in areas of sovereignty, economic governance and competitiveness.

On Friday, Cameron also met with the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, who, according to Downing Street, "expressed his commitment to finding solutions in all four areas that would address the concerns of the British people, including action in the area of welfare."

The British prime minister also called French President Francois Hollande Friday to discuss where the negotiations have got to.

"The Prime Minister said discussions that a deal in February remained possible if significant progress can be made in the coming days," the Downing Street spokesperson noted.

"The Prime Minister said that if the deal on the table for February wasn't right, he wouldn't take it - there is no hurry and it is more important to fundamentally reform the UK's relationship with the EU," the spokesperson added.

Cameron and Hollande also touched on a number of other issues, including the ongoing cooperation on counter-terrorism, Syria and the humanitarian crisis and Iran.

Cameron has pledged to hold an "in or out" referendum on whether Britain should withdraw from the EU by 2017. He pledged to campaign for his country to remain in the bloc if the EU agrees to reform as Britain has requested. Endit