European Council President Tusk Fears Prospect of Brexit 'Real'

European Council President Donald Tusk said Monday that negotiations over Britain's possible exit from the 28-member European Union were at a critical stage with the risk of break-up being very real.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — UK Prime Minister Cameron is seeking to renegotiate his country's EU membership and has pledged to hold a referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the bloc, referred to as an in/out vote, no later than by the end of 2017.

"This is a critical moment. Risk of break-up is real as #UKinEU negotiations very fragile. Handle with care. What is broken cannot be mended," Tusk wrote in his Twitter.

Next #EUCO has 2 biggest challenges to EU's future on agenda: UK's future membership of EU and migration crisis pic.twitter.com/uT7Y7jxdT0

— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) 15 февраля 2016

This is a critical moment. Risk of break-up is real as #UKinEU negotiations very fragile. Handle with care. What is broken cannot be mended

— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) 15 февраля 2016

Tusk is on a visit to Bucharest to discuss the so-called Brexit and migration crisis in Europe with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis ahead of this week's European Council meeting.

The UK leader has outlined four demands to the European Union, including shifting power away from Brussels back to the UK national legislature, exempting Britain from the EU "superstate" principle, denouncing the euro as a single official EU currency, and protecting the UK economy by keeping eurozone members away from the non-eurozone countries’ affairs.