EU Welcomes UK Plans to Present Reform Demands by Early November - Tusk

The European Union hails British Prime Minister David Cameron’s plan to present a list of EU reforms that the United Kingdom wants implemented ahead of its EU membership referendum, European Council President Donald Tusk said.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – Cameron has pledged to hold a referendum on the United Kingdom's EU membership by the end of 2017.

"We welcomed Prime Minister Cameron’s commitments to set out the UK’s specific concerns in writing by early November," Tusk told reporters in Brussels.

The British prime minister has outlined four demands to the European Union that would be required to keep the United Kingdom within the bloc.

These include shifting power away from Brussels back to the UK national legislature and exempting Britain from the bloc's drive for an "ever-closer union"; denouncing the euro as a single official EU currency and protecting the UK economy by keeping Eurozone members away from non-Eurozone countries’ affairs; enacting tighter immigration control and cutting off or limiting welfare that migrants can receive in Britain and other EU states.

According to an Ipsos MORI survey conducted last week, as many as 66 percent of UK citizens are skeptical that Cameron would "get a good deal" negotiating with Brussels.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has warned that if the United Kingdom does not get the commitments it needs from the European Union, British people will vote in favor of the United Kingdom exiting the European Union (Brexit).

The British prime minister is expected to give more details on EU reforms that the United Kingdom wants implemented at the upcoming summit of EU leaders in December.