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EU Reform Deal With UK Contains Positive Changes - Czech Prime Minister

© AFP 2023 / EMMANUEL DUNAND Czech Republic's Prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka arrives for an EU summit meeting, at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, on February 18, 2016
Czech Republic's Prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka arrives for an EU summit meeting, at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, on February 18, 2016 - Sputnik International
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Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said that the newest project of the EU agreement with Britain, which was received by Prague last night, contains positive changes, but it is still not what the Czech Republic wants.

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PRAGUE (Sputnik) — The latest EU reform proposals to address the United Kingdom's demands contain positive amendments, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said Thursday.

"The newest project of the [EU] agreement with Britain, which was received [by Prague] last night, contains positive changes, but it is still not what the Czech Republic wants," Sobotka told reporters ahead of the ongoing European Council summit in Brussels.

The two-day EC summit is taking place from February 18 to 19. European leaders are discussing the United Kingdom's plans to hold a referendum on its membership of the bloc unless concessions are achieved over political and economic power devolution as well as curbs on intra-European migration and migrants' social benefit entitlements.

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The only amendment made to the proposals is the European Commission's promise to limit the curbs on welfare benefits to immigrant children, Sobotka said. Meanwhile, the proposals driven by London's demands omit issues concerning Eastern and Central European states, the prime minister added.

On Tuesday, the Czech leader stated that the Visegrad Group States, comprising Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, support the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union.

On February 2, European Council President Donald Tusk offered an array of reforms to meet some of London's demands, while British Prime Minister David Cameron stressed that there may be just months to reach an agreement before a Brexit referendum takes place.

Cameron pledged to hold a referendum on the United Kingdom's future within the European Union by the end of 2017. Ahead of the vote, the British prime minister is seeking to revise the terms of the country's membership of the bloc, including an exemption from the EU principle of an ever-closer union and in-work benefit curbs for EU immigrants.

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