EU Migrant Crisis 'Plays Into' UK Push to Change EU Rules - Hammond

The escalating European Union refugee crisis emphasizes the need to revise EU rules, including those currently raised by Britain in its ongoing negotiations with Brussels, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in Brussels on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — London has been pushing for EU reforms as part of a renegotiation deal with Brussels regarding Britain’s relationship with the 28-member union. The Conservative government has sought to cap the inflow of EU migrants defining the move as clamping down on "benefit tourism."

"This migration crisis has thrown into stark relief some of the issues the EU has to deal with — and that plays directly into some of the issues we are raising in our renegotiation proposition," Hammond was quoted by the BBC as saying.

He stressed that hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to Europe and London’s proposed migration reforms were separate but related issues.

The European Commission has been reluctant to put curbs on migration within the union, pointing out that freedom of movement within the bloc is a non-negotiable core EU value.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron promised an in/out referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017. His party has vowed to cut annual immigration to tens of thousands from the current hundreds of thousands, a promise identical to that which he gave ahead of the 2010 UK election.