Skeptical EU Likely to Provide Stiff Opposition to UK Reform Plan

The United Kingdom's draft deal with the European Union on reforming the bloc shows that none of the proposed changes to the EU treaty on key issues has been secured, the Guardian newspaper said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – In a few hours, UK Prime Minister David Cameron will face off with his 27 fellow EU leaders, who are meeting in Brussels for a two-day summit. He is seeking to renegotiate United Kingdom's membership of the union to pave the way for an in/out referendum.

In the final draft of Cameron’s blueprint for reforming the bloc, which was circulated to EU leaders on Wednesday and seen by the Guardian, all references to changes to the Lisbon Treaty appears in brackets – signifying that they are open to debate.

Differences have been widening on all key issues, including curbs on welfare benefits for intra-EU immigrants, financial controls on non-eurozone EU states and an opt-out for London from the European Union’s commitment to an ever-closer union, according to the British news outlet.

Opposition to the UK-proposed reforms appears to have grown in the European Union since Cameron launched a campaign to revise Britain’s EU membership terms after winning the May 2015 general election.

France has been skeptical of its neighbor's initiative to create safeguards that would prevent the 19-nation single currency zone from imposing financial regulations on the rest of the union, while Eastern European countries are unhappy about possible limits to benefits for their nationals working in the United Kingdom.