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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Claire Phipps, Matthew Weaver, Ben Quinn and Kevin Rawlinson

EU summit: Cameron secures deal and starts campaign to keep Britain in – as it happened

David Cameron delivering a press conference
David Cameron delivering a press conference after reaching a deal with European leaders on his reforms. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images

Closing summary

What we know

David Cameron has claimed victory and pledged to campaign with “all my heart and soul” to keep Britain inside the EU after a deal was struck on Friday evening to redraw the terms of the UK’s membership.

Leaders of the other 27 member nations agreed to a deal that will see:

  • a seven-year term for the emergency brake to restrict EU migrants in the UK claiming in-work benefits.
  • child benefit payments indexed to the cost of living for children living outside the UK for all new arrivals to the UK, extending to all workers from 1 January 2020.
  • any single non-eurozone country able to force a debate among EU leaders about ‘problem’ eurozone laws – though they will not have a veto.
  • an unequivocal opt-out stating that EU treaty “references to ever-closer union do not apply to the United Kingdom”.

What we don’t yet know

  • The date of the in/out referendum, widely believed, but not confirmed, to be 23 June.
  • Whether Michael Gove will make the leap from eurosceptic to full-blown no campaigner.

What happens next

Cameron has summoned his cabinet to a meeting on Saturday morning – reportedly the first time the cabinet has met on a Saturday since the Falklands war. The prime minister will announce that the government endorses the deal and will campaign for the UK to stay in the EU – but this lets off the leash those members of the cabinet who oppose membership and will now be free to campaign for a no vote.

What to read next

I’m wrapping up this live blog now, but we’ll be back with live coverage as Cameron convenes his cabinet on Saturday morning. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Will no one think of the journalists? The late hour of the deal has meant some last-minute revising of Saturday’s front pages – here are second editions from an unhappy Scottish Daily Mail and the Times:

How special is the UK's special status?

David Cameron’s tweet claiming “I have negotiated a deal to give the UK special status in the EU” has been knocked back by others involved in the deal, Jennifer Rankin reports.

EU officials downplayed Cameron’s claims, pointing out that the agreement confirmed Britain’s place as the country with the largest number of opt-outs and exclusions from EU law.

“Having a special status is not a reason for divorce,” said one senior official.

European council president Donald Tusk said:

The special status of the UK is nothing new – in fact, it is the essence of our common history.

Jean-Claude Juncker pointed out that:

The UK has always had special and specific status.

EU officials stressed that the “self-destruct clause” remains intact, meaning that if Britain votes to leave the European Union, the deal will disappear.

The Saturday front pages – perhaps due to the late hour of the deal – seem to be playing the news fairly straight:

Germany could also adopt limits on child benefit

The Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, Jennifer Rankin, has been listening in on the whirl of press conferences taking place at the summit on Friday evening:

The German chancellor Angela Merkel said the British deal was a good compromise that introduced “a number of very interesting and valuable changes to the EU”.

She said Germany would consider introducing similar restrictions on child benefit and voiced confidence that the changes on economic governance would not stop the eurozone from taking decisions in a crisis.

Merkel rejected criticism that “we’ve given away too much”, although she conceded that the the issue of ever-closer union had been difficult to agree:

That’s an emotional issue. I am one of those who are for it.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European commission, said the deal was fair to Britain and the other member states:

The deal does not deepen cracks in our union, but builds bridges.

And while we wait to hear if Michael Gove will definitely come out in favour of Brexit, here’s another Conservative MP, Daniel Kawczynski, signalling his backing for the vote no campaign:

Kawczynski, who is Polish born, argues that the UK could continue to maintain a strong relationship with Poland outside the EU.

Merkel: deal is a 'fair compromise'

German chancellor Angela Merkel – touted as potentially Cameron’s strongest backer ahead of the negotiations – is next in line with a thumbs-up for the deal struck on Friday night, calling it a “fair compromise” that ought to persuade Britain to stick with the union:

We believe that with this we have given David Cameron a package with which he can campaign in Britain for Britain to stay in the European Union…

I wish David Cameron all the best in the coming weeks and months.

German chancellor Angela Merkel addresses a press conference at end of the summit.
German chancellor Angela Merkel addresses a press conference at end of the summit. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Beata Szydło, prime minister of Poland, whose citizens in the UK are likely to be among those most affected by the rule changes on benefits, has tweeted in cautious support of the deal:

Today’s agreement is good news for Europe. We took care of the interests of the Polish people benefiting from social security in the member states.

(A combination of my and Google translation from the Polish – please shout in the comments or @Claire_Phipps if wildly off.)

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi also seems pleased – and not a little relieved – that a deal has been done:

Juncker stresses that “derogating from fundamental principles” – the emergency brake on in-work benefits, for example – is strictly time-limited and must not be discriminatory.

Tusk calls non-discrimination between EU citizens “a fundamental principle that must be respected”.

Hello, this is Claire Phipps picking up the live blog reins again, as those involved in the talks pile in to laud the agreement reached on Friday evening.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, echoes Tusk in celebrating the deal:

Today marks the end of a long journey that began during my election campaign.

It is now for UK people to decide, he adds.

He says that, like Cameron, he has often been frustrated with the EU:

Our performance is not always what I would want it to be.

But he says the deal does not deepen cracks within Europe but builds bridges.

The European council president Donald Tusk is lining up behind the deal - and David Cameron - with a series of tweets:

Cameron hails EU deal

After marathon talks, the EU leaders finally agreed renegotiated terms of Britain’s membership on Friday night.

The breakthrough was supposed to have come by the time the delegates sat down for an English breakfast but they eventually went through lunch and sat down for dinner before the news was released.

After the announcement, the job of selling the deal to the British people started for the prime minister. Cameron said he was “disappointed, but not surprised” at the reports that his cabinet colleague Michael Gove was likely to campaign to leave the EU and he did not seem confident he could secure Boris Johnson’s support.

Nevertheless, Cameron hailed the deal, saying it ensured that Britain would be exempt from being part of an ever closer political union and allowed an emergency brake on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits that would last for seven years.

It also allowed for restrictions on child benefit for new EU migrants to start at a reduced rate, indexed to that rate of their home country. Existing EU migrants will be paid at the lower rate from 2020.

And each country will have the right to impose a handbrake to refer contentious financial regulation to a meeting of EU leaders in the European Council.

The final question of the press conference is an interesting one from one of our Spanish colleagues: is the prime minister happy to see British expats discriminated against?

Cameron says he is fine with other European countries using the new rules drawn up, just as Britain will do, adding that he does not see it as discrimination.

Asked about whether Boris Johnson will support him, Cameron says people will have to decide for themselves and that politicians from each party will likely campaign for each side.

He does not sound confident of his friend’s support.

Cameron ignores Sky’s question on whether the referendum will be held on 23 June, so the BBC tries again. Cameron sidesteps it, saying he will present the deal to the cabinet before any announcement is made.

Cameron says he will campaign with his “heart and soul” to stay in the EU.

My colleague Nicholas Watt asked the prime minister about the reports that Michael Gove will campaign against him, as well as how he will sell a deal to stay in when many Conservatives have been staunchly anti-EU.

Cameron said he has long supported EU membership, as long as the bloc reformed. He said he was “disappointed but... not surprised” that Gove - one of his “oldest and closest friends” is likely to campaign to leave the EU.

Updated

The prime minister says that working closely together with Europe will bring Britain more security.

And he says that British businesses would maintain access to the EU single market if the UK voted to stay.

Cameron says Britain would be stronger within a reformed EU. Labour’s Frank Field does not believe the prime minister has done enough.

Cameron also acknowledges the reports that some of his cabinet colleagues are likely to abandon him, saying the referendum campaign will not be fought on party lines. He says that some in his own party will be among those to reject his call to stay in a reformed EU.

Cameron lauds the deal. He says it says it guarantees:

  • Britain will never be made to bail out eurozone countries
  • No discrimination against British businesses because they are outside of the eurozone
  • New powers to stop criminals coming to the UK and to deport them
  • An emergency brake on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits lasting for seven years
  • Britain will be exempt from ever-closer union

Cameron says Britain would have to agree to any rolling back of the deal. “When I said I wanted reforms that are legally binding ... that is what I’ve got.”

And he calls the renegotiation a “live and let live” deal but says it is a “milestone, not and end point”. The deal will be presented to the cabinet on Saturday and to parliament on Monday.

Updated

The prime minister is presenting the deal he has agreed with his EU counterparts to the press. Watch above.

Updated

The special guest winding up the Grassroots Out launch in London, George Galloway, was a controversial choice: one of Britain’s most high-profile and controversial leftwingers in front of an audience that appeared to be dominated by Conservatives and Ukip members.

It was too much for some of them. There was booing and some even walked out.

Galloway, in a typically loud and boisterous speech, dismissed the EU as a rich man’s club and committed the Respect party to joining the GO coalition. He made a case against too many easy labels, such as nationalist and Little Englander, attached to the anti-EU movement.

“I want to nail the lie that to be on this side of the argument is to wallow in nationalism. As a matter of fact, I hate nationalism,” Galloway said, recalling his part in opposing Scottish independence. He wanted to trade with the Commonwealth and elsewhere around the world. “That is internationalism.”

Updated

Details emerge of renegotiated terms of Britain's EU membership

My colleagues in Brussels – Nicholas Watt, Ian Traynor and Jennifer Rankin – write to say that Cameron’s success in renegotiating the terms of Britain’s EU membership will pave the way for him to announce a referendum on 23 June.

The key changes will mean that:

• A proposed emergency brake on EU migrants claiming in work benefits will last for seven years. It will apply on an individual for no more than four years, and will be phased out after the first year. But the UK will be allowed to apply the overall restrictions for seven years.

• Restrictions on child benefit for EU migrants will kick in at a reduced rate – indexed to the rate of a migrant’s home country – for new migrants with immediate effect. Existing EU migrants will be paid at the lower rate from 2020. Eastern European countries had hoped to exempt existing migrants altogether.

• Britain has a specific opt-out from the EU’s historic commitment to forge an ‘ever closer union of the peoples of Europe’.

• One country – effectively Britain – will have the right to impose a handbrake to refer contentious financial regulation to a meeting of EU leaders in the European Council.

Updated

Now that David Cameron has secured a deal, he begins the task of selling it to the British public

Reporters at the Grassroots Out event are saying that George Galloway - recently revealed as the special guest speaker - is not getting the best of receptions:

Nigel Farage told the Grassroots Out conference that a deal had been reached. In his first reaction, he said: “Dave’s deal is not worth the paper it is written on.”

The response to the conference to Farage’s announcement was muted, in part because there is still no detail, as Farage acknowledged, and no official British confirmation. “This deal that has been done does not address the fundamental issues that the British people care about. It does not address the issues that our parliament is not able to overrule bad EU law.” Other issues were the £55m-a-day cost of membership and the inability to control migration.

“And yet, after a cabinet meeting at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning, there will be a press conference and the prime minister will tell you he has won this amazing deal.”

The surprise guest completing the night is George Galloway.

European council president Donald Tusk says deal done

Well, this would seem to clear up some of the confusion, somewhat:

The position of Jeremy Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell on the European Union has been ambiguous. But Labour MP Kate Hoey placed them firmly in the sceptical camp.

Speaking at the Grassroots Out conference, Hoey, a co-founder of the movement, said some of her Labour colleagues, including Corbyn and McDonnell, “believe, like me, that our membership of the EU is incompatible with Labour values.”

She reeled off a string of senior Labour figures in the past who opposed the European Union. “So, that is why it is so incredibly disappointing somehow, somewhere in the Labour machinery, Jeremy and John have been stifled.” She expressed hope that, in the next month or two, they will come out.

Conservative MP David Davis said about 700 people had been locked out of the conference because there were already too many inside; a tribute to the organisers.

So, no confirmation on a deal and little detail on what one might entail. However, Bloomberg have tweeted this:

The Czech prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka says a deal has been agreed by European Union leaders to keep Britain in the 28-nation bloc that represents a “decent compromise”.

However, Donald Tusk’s spokesperson has cast doubt on the claims.

Updated

'Deal reached' claims

And as the delegates sit down to eat, a suggestion from the Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė that a deal has been done.

No details yet on the terms but we’ll bring you them as they come in.

Updated

The Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat has posted the menu for the English dinner. “Not exactly fish and chips”, he says.

Updated

The first 90 minutes of the Grassroots Out conference has been flat so far, short of ‘big names’.

The ‘biggest name’ has been veteran Eurosceptic MP Sir Bill Cash, who reminded the audience that he was one of the Conservative rebels who voted against the Maastricht Treaty 25 years ago. He delivered a speech that probably sounded much like the one 25 years ago: the fight was for our grandchildren but also our grandparents who had fought for British independence. “We will fight and fight again,” he vowed.

Trade unionist John Boyd predicted a major trade union will come out in favour of GO on Monday.

The main interest of a largely-bored press crew inside the conference is trying to find out who designed GO’s lurid tie. One of the speakers said it was deliberate so it would provide a talking point.

The other main interest is in trying to guess the ‘special guest’ who will provide the finale, following on from Kate Hoey, David Davis and Nigel Farage.

The delegates have finally sat down to an English dinner, Donald Tusk’s spokesperson has said.

According to Reuters, officials and diplomats have said that a draft agreement is almost ready that could be approved over a potentially brief meal. However, there remain snags that could hold up proceedings. So, plenty for them chew over.

Negotiations were supposed to have been wrapped up by breakfast time. Here’s Kate Lyons’ guide to how an English breakfast became and English lunch and now an English dinner with no deal in place.

Over at the Grassroots Out conference in London, it seems some would-be attendees have been shut out - including ITV’s political editor Robert Peston.

Shakespearean quotes, gift-wrapped editions of Beatrix Potter, Belgian surrealism... plus a large helping of backstabbing and brinkmanship.

It could only be the last 48 hours in Brussels, from where the Guardian’s Ian Traynor has filed this account of events as they unfolded. A snippet:

The British side let it be known that Cameron sought to woo the federalist Michel by presenting him with a French edition of the works of Beatrix Potter for a new-born daughter.

In fact, the books were gifted a fortnight ago during the international Syria conference in London.

Enda Kenny, the taoiseach and Cameron’s biggest champion at the summit, took to quoting Macbeth along the lines of if this had to be done, best to get it done quickly. Macbeth, of course, was talking of murder, a point perhaps lost on most of Kenny’s audience.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, right, speaks with European Council President Donald Tusk and the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, right, speaks with European Council President Donald Tusk and the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. Photograph: Francois Lenoir/AP

Read on here..

Potentially massive news that Mike Read’s Ukip calypso might be making something of a return in a revised form (maybe).

Either way, surely it’s an excuse to have a listen again to the original again, for which Read apologised following criticism that it was racist.

Ukip Calypso was performed by former Radio 1 DJ Mike Read and a band called the Independents.

Of course, let’s not forget ‘Ukip Calypso - A Response’.

Updated

The 1,000-seater auditorium is full for tonight’s Grassroots Out rally, adds Ewen Macaskill, with about a couple of hundred more lining the sides.

Each seat had a bar of ‘Dave’s Finest EU Vanilla Fudge’.

An activist with bars of specially produced fudge at the Grassroots Out rally in London on February 19.
An activist with bars of specially produced fudge at the Grassroots Out rally in London on February 19. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

The gaps are narrowing back in Brussels meanwhile, say British sources, but none of the problem issues have been solved.

The Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin reports that negotiators on both sides have turned to the favourite cliche of EU summits: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

She’s also filed a piece on the sticking points that still need to be ironed out, namely:

  • The emergency brake
  • Child benefits
  • Eurozone ins and outs
  • Ever closer union
  • Treaty Change
  • The Greek veto

Some movement is in hand in relation to the emergency brake at least, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg

Brexit campaigners rally in London

Nigel Farage disputed a suggestion that tonight’s London launch of the anti-EU Grassroots Out movement was looking like falling flat, reports the Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill.

There had been an expectation of a night of drama, with the GO conference at the centre of it. The EU would have reached an agreement by the time the meeting began, the cabinet would have met and a string of cabinet ministers would trundle over to the GO gathering at the QE2 centre across from parliament. But there is no deal, no cabinet meeting and little anticipation of any cabinet ministers turning up.

Asked by the Guardian about the impact of the absence of cabinet ministers, Farage, in the foyer of the conference centre and wearing a black and lurid green-striped GO tie, asked who had suggested there would be cabinet ministers. “The media? I have given up on them,” he said, turning away.

He hesitated and came back.

What you are witnessing here with GO is a genuine grassroots getting together of people. But significantly this crosses the political divide. And all the press talk about are Conservative cabinet ministers.

Now I am not saying they are not significant or important. They are. I read the newspapers in Britain and everyone has forgotten it was the trade union movement and the left which were traditionally very worried about European union and what you will see tonight is left and right coming together with the united aim of divorcing ourselves from political union

Farage added that the public dislike squabbling politicians squabbling and the sight of politicians normally opposed to one another coming together on the stage tonight will be impressive.

A woman at the Grassroots Out rally in London on February 19.
A woman at the Grassroots Out rally in London on February 19. Photograph: Andrew Cowie/EPA

Updated

Here’s a list of the speakers at the ‘Grassroots Out’ rally in London:

• David Davis, Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden
• William Cash, Conservative MP for Stone
• Nigel Farage, MEP for the South East of England and Leader of UKIP
• Kate Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall
• Tom Pursglove, Conservative MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire
• Peter Bone, Conservative MP for Wellingborough
• Ruth Lea, Economist
• John Foreman, trade union activist

The Guardian’s Robert Booth spent some time last week looking at the Grassroots Out campaign (GO!) group, which pitches itself as the anti-establishment campaign to leave the EU.

Updated

Brexit campaigners have been gathering at the Westminster’s QEII centre in London tonight for a major rally.

Those on the bill include the UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, as well as Conservatives including MP Peter Bone. UKIP members and others have been tweeting pictures of the scene:

Cameron braced for larger than expected cabinet backlash

David Cameron is now braced for an announcement by Michael Gove, one of his closest cabinet allies, that he will abandon the prime minister and join the campaign to take Britain out of the EU.

As negotiations at a summit in Brussels on his EU reform plans dragged into a second night, the Guardian’s team in Brussels also report that there were growing fears that the prime minister faces a larger than expected cabinet backlash against the deal.

A move by Gove, the justice secretary, to support a Brexit will electrify the Leave side in the EU referendum and put pressure on Boris Johnson to follow his lead. The London mayor has caused some irritation in Downing Street by making a series of demands – firstly for two referendums, and then a declaration of the sovereignty of parliament – while claiming he cannot make up his mind.

Gove has made clear in semi-private that he has been torn between the profound belief that Britain should break free from the shackles of EU membership and loyalty to the prime minister and the chancellor.

The justice secretary knows that joining the Leave campaign could terminate the political careers of his two great friends and boost the leadership chances of Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

David Cameron and Michael Gove at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2015.
David Cameron and Michael Gove at the Conservative Party Conference in October 2015. Photograph: DAVID HARTLEY/REX Shutterstock

The latest scheduled time for tonight’s working dinner involving EU leaders in Brussels is 8.30pm.

Rather incredibly perhaps, it’ll be the first time that all 28 will have been in the same room today.

Meanwhile, here’s your one stop shop for the whole ‘English breakfast/brunch/dinner/dog’s breakfast’ affair:

It’s still tough going, depending on who you listen to. Here’s one of the summit’s star tweeters, the Czech Republic’s State Secretary for European Affairs, translating a tweet from one of his fellow V4 members

Also, turns out that the “V4” (not to be confused with the rocket of the same name) have a “war room” to deal with UK “demands”:

Updated

Hopes have been building in Brussels that a deal might be in the making this evening.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister, Robert Fico, said earlier that he believed all that the negotiators were close to a compromise this evening. Here’s the audio (via the BBC):

BBC confirms Gove will back Brexit

David Cameron won’t be able to count on the support of his justice secretary, Michael Gove, in the coming referendum, according to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, backing up those earlier reports that this was the case.

Updated

Seems like as good a time as any.. Angela Merkel has just popped out for some chips.

Here’s the photographic evidence - guilty expression captured by James Mates of ITV:

A poll published this morning may hint at a surprising amount of goodwill the German public has retained towards the British government: according to a new survey by public broadcaster ZDF.

The Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief, Philip Oltermann, reports that it finds that 73% of Germans think it is ‘important’ or ‘very important’ that Britain stays in the European Union.

But the slow pace of today’s negotiations seems to be testing many German commentators’ patience. On the website Der Spiegel, commentators Peter Müller and Christoph Pauly question why Cameron felt the need to go to war for such a “risible sum” of 25 million pounds a year – the maximum amount of money Britain could save by cutting child benefits.

In Frankfurter Rundschau, Green MEP Terry Reintke bemoans that Cameron has effectively brought EU policy to a standstill at a time at which the refugee crisis demanded action.

“For years, Cameron has done nothing but appease the populists in Great Britain, he even met them halfway, making the EU responsible for all sorts of ills. With little success. Now he is lying in an European grave of his own making, because he knows that Brexit would be an economic and political disaster for the UK (just as it would be for the EU).

The approach of the British Labour Party to the EU negotiations in Brussels is set to get an airing on Monday at one of Labour’s (now often fractious) Parliamentary Party meetings, according to Conor Pope of Labour List.

As we reported yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn attacked David Cameron’s emergency brake on migrant benefits as ineffectual, as he branded the whole renegotiation a “theatrical sideshow”.

Corbyn’s comments were at odds with the cross-party Britain Stronger in Europe campaign to keep the UK in the EU, which supports the prime minister’s renegotiation and praised the “significant proposals which everyone should get behind” when they were announced in early February.

A shadow cabinet source said Corbyn’s position had been pre-agreed, but there had been some concern among parliamentary colleagues that he was not sending out the right message by failing to back a measure aimed at cutting immigration and also that being too critical of the proposals would help Eurosceptics who want to portray Cameron’s efforts as insignificant.

Updated

Questions about Britain’s EU membership isn’t the only issue where there are tensions at the Brussels talks. Slovakia has signalled that it is prepared to take measures to protect its border with Austria following Vienna’s decision to cap the number of migrants travelling through its territory.

The Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico told a briefing earlier:

We are launching all technical measures for the protection of our border with Austria for the eventuality that larger groups stay at the Austrian border ... and try to get around and get to Germany via a different route.

The Irish Government will use the common travel between Ireland and the UK area to try to exempt Irish citizens working in Britain from Britain’s proposed reduction in welfare payments to EU migrants during Brexit talks in Brussels, according to the Irish Times.

The common travel area, which predates both states’ entries into the Common Market, is recognised in Protocol 20 of the EU Treaty.

Denis Staunton, London Editor of the Irish Times, quotes the treaty, which says:

The UK and Ireland may continue to make arrangements between themselves relating to the movement of persons between their territories.

Nothing in Articles 26 and 77 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in any other provision of that Treaty or of the Treaty on European Union or in any measure adopted under them, shall affect any such arrangements.

Everyone should make compromises but those taking part in the talks “could be there” this evening, according to Bulgaria’s Deputy Foreign Minister.

Rumen Alexandriv told the BBC that the “social part” of negotiations - and in particular proposed restrictions on benefits payments to the children of EU migrants working in the UK but who have offspring in their home countries - was an issue of sensitivity

However, he signalled that a compromise might be possible in relation to the duration when such restrictions would apply after workers start receiving it.

One particular sticking point in talks surrounds welfare payments to EU migrant workers in Britain, according to details coming out of a briefing by Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament

Poland is putting some serious points on the tables about its citizens in the UK, according to the BBC.

The Union flag is out for some updates on the British side, although no deal is in sight.

More on that potentially important development in relation to Justice Secretary Michael Gove, who is now expected to back a UK departure from the European Union in the forthcoming referndum.

The Spectator’s James Forsyth writes:

If Gove has gone to Out, it will be a shot of pure adrenaline for the Out campaign. It will give it intellectual respectability and genuine Cabinet heft.

The move will also confirm Gove’s status as a conviction politician.

Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, leaves a cabinet meeting at Downing Street on February.
Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, leaves a cabinet meeting at Downing Street on February. Photograph: Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Two key hurdles remain to be cleared later in the Brussels talks, according to the Guardian’s chief political correspondent, Nick Watt, who has filed this analysis of where things stand:

First it was to be a full English breakfast, then an English lunch, then High Tea and now it is a plain old dinner. The full meeting of the European Council, suspended in the early hours of Friday morning, will reconvene for dinner at 7.00pm UK, to consider a text on the new settlement for the UK.

The moment the leaders sit down will mark the moment that a deal is in sight because Donald Tusk, the European Council president, has indicated that he will not hold the meeting until he gets the nod from all 28 European leaders.

But there will still be two hurdles to clear: the prime minister’s demand to embed the deal in a legally binding agreement has to be resolved and the formal conclusions of the European Council have to be agreed.

The delayed dinner means that the prime minister has now abandoned plans to hold a cabinet meeting on Friday night.

This will be delayed until Saturday, assuming a deal is reached overnight. That cabinet meeting will mark the most perilous moment of the prime minister’s career. He will formally ask the cabinet to endorse the deal but will then lift collective responsibility and allow cabinet ministers to campaign on either side in the referendum.

There is a growing expectation in No 10 that Cameron’s close personal friend and cabinet ally Michael Gove wil take a different view to the prime minister and campaign to leave the EU. The move by Gove will put immense pressure on Boris Johnson (below) to follow his lead.

London’s Mayor Boris Johnson leaves No10 Downing Street after talks David Cameron on February 17.
London’s Mayor Boris Johnson leaves No10 Downing Street after talks David Cameron on February 17. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

Here’s what it looks like at the coalface, via a tweet from Donald Tusk’s office showing a tense looking David Cameron in talks with Tusk, Francois Hollande and Jean-Claude Juncker. Those flowers might be starting to wilt.

Cameron: Talks to go on this evening

Negotiations are continuing into this evening, according to the prime minister. Is a deal on tonight?

Among other effects, that’s a potential nightmare for newspapers and how headlines will be written when they go to press.

Updated

Significant perhaps, although not entirely a shock: The prime minister is resigned to losing the justice secretary, Michael Gove, to the ranks of those who will campaign for a referendum vote in favour of the UK leaving the EU.

As recently as two weeks ago, Gove had been regarded as more likely to join Cameron, George Osborne, and the foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, in campaigning to keep Britain in the EU.

There is confidence on the part of the Commission that a “conclusion” might be reached this evening at a working dinner (8pm local time), according to a commission spokesman who has been talking to journalists in Brussels in the last few minutes.

The British are briefing journalists. Fingers crossed for some movement..

When it comes to the crunch, eastern European countries states who have been battling the UK over welfare payment restrictions will eventually give ground, predicts the director of the Budapest-based think-tank Political Capital.

It’s all about the “external legitimisation”- which the UK can give them apparently. Dan Nolan, for the Guardian, has been speaking to Péter Krekó.

His analysis analysis of Cameron, Hungary and the Visegrad Four is interesting:

While of course there are disagreements and some tensions in the talks, after David Cameron visited Budapest last month, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán talked about the new axis of Great Britain plus the Visegrad Four, who he said should set the direction of a less integrated Europe that is more built on economic cooperation than political cooperation.

My feeling is the Eastern European countries are willing to give up some their current advantages, for example on the EU labour market, in return for external legitimisation from Cameron.

For example it is very rare for Orbán to hold bilateral meetings with Western European politicians, and he is still quite isolated and very frequently criticised. But then Cameron, an unquestionably democratic Western leader comes to Hungary and is quite friendly.

Here is some more background from earlier this week, by the Guardian’s Europe Editor, Ian Traynor:

A good day to bury bad (or no) news? The Guardian’s Rowena Mason points out that Britain’s Department of Work and Pensions have chosen to publish a potentially key document which is supposed to describe its priority objectives for 2015 to 2020.

An ominous sign perhaps. The Czech State Secretary for European Affairs says he’s becoming “more and more perplexed” by the British approach to “non-negotiation”

The Czechs are among those leading central European countries that demand limits on proposed cuts in benefits for EU workers in Britain.

Updated

So now it’s an “English dinner” according to Donald Tusk’s spokesman:

At this rate it’s going to be a Sunday roast with all the trimmings.

A little recap might be in order. As we reported earlier, officials in Brussels had originally referred to the final session as “the English breakfast”, summoning up visions of hungry leaders tucking into a hearty fry-up as they handed the PM his deal.

As rumours of dissent around the table began to emerge on Thursday, however, the schedule began to slip and word in the Council’s Justus Lipsius building was that the meeting was turning into an “English brunch”. Then it was a lunch. Now it’s a dinner.

All clear? Good.

Spare a thought for Poland’s foreign minister however:

British journalists in Brussels are wondering whether to remain or leave, quips Newsnight’s David Grossman.

Some are already heading home.

Polish PM Beata Szydło was all smiles in her meeting with Cameron, while the British PM bites his lip. Check out the grimace from the Polish officials examining the paper work. This was their second meeting of the day.

Poland is still looking for guarantees on child benefits.

Updated

Notice a theme ? How cartoonists around Europe have been depicting the talks...

This one, from Petar Pismestrovic, who works for Kleine Zeitung in Austria, is called ‘Running out of the clock’

Christo Komarnitski, from Bulgaria, focuses on David Cameron and Angela Merkel

Slovakia’s Marian Kamensky puts Cameron in a spot of bother

A Dutch reader tweets a picture of one of the latest from Tom Janssen

Peter Brooks for the Times has tweeted his Friday latest in the last couple of hours

… and here is Martin Rowson for the Guardian

Updated

Talks between Cameron and Merkel looked fairly intense. Furrowed brows from both.

Belgium prime minister Charles Michel has confirmed his proposal to make it clear that Britain could not seek to further renegotiate the terms of its EU membership if the UK were to vote to leave in the referendum.

“There is no second chance. A deal with the UK is final,” he tweeted.

The proposal would kill off a plan by Vote Leave’s campaign director, Dominic Cummings, arguing that a second referendum could be held after two years of severance negotiations if the UK were to vote to leave.

There will be suspicions that the UK has at the very least nudged Belgium, the country keenest to forge a federal Europe and no friend of Britain in the negotiations, to make clear that the vote will be final and definitive, a message the Better Together camp sought to promote during the Scottish independence referendum.

English lunch delayed yet again

The “English meal” has been put back yet again. Donald Tusk’s spokesman Preben Aamann said it had now been shifted to 4pm (CET) but this is still to be confirmed.

Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico says a compromise is likely on the timing of the Cameron’s emergency brake on benefits, according to PA’s Jakub Krupa.

Fico wouldn’t be drawn on Greece’s threat to block the deal unless it get border guarantees.

The office of Poland’s prime minister Beata Szydło confirms that Cameron’s proposed welfare restrictions remain a “particularly difficult” issue.

Back in the UK, the Church of Scotland has intervened in discussions over the forthcoming referendum by calling for a “positive debate” about the EU’s role in promoting international peace and cooperation.

Rev Dr Richard Frazer, vice convener of the Church of Scotland’s church and society council, said:

“Since last year’s general election, we have known that there will be a referendum on the UK’s continued membership of the European Union. There is likely to be a very short timescale to discuss such an important set of issues. It will be a decision which will shape our country, our communities and our lives for generations to come.”

With memories, perhaps, of some of the more robust aspects of the Scottish referendum campaign, he added: “It is vital that there is now a respectful, engaging, but above all positive debate which will focus on important issues.”

Poland says close to a deal

Poland’s Europe minister, Konrad Szymański, has told journalists that some progress has been made, but more guarantees are needed after Cameron held talks with his Polish counterpart.

Szymańsk is quoted as saying that he is not sure if a deal will be made today. The key sticking point is the indexation of child benefits, but agreement could have been reached on the timing of the Cameron’s emergency brake.

Britain proposed that child benefit be capped at the level appropriate to the standard of living in the member state where the child resides. But it is unclear how the measure would apply to EU nationals already working abroad and sending benefits to their home country.

Poland and other eastern European nations fear the measure could set a precedent for other countries or for restricting other benefits. The latter is now addressed directly in the documents. A new sentence inserted in the draft proposal specifically excludes future proposals to index other types of exportable benefits, such as pensions:

“The Commission does not intend to propose that the future system of optional indexation of child benefits be extended to other types of exportable benefits, such as old-age pensions.”

Updated

AFP has more on Greece’s threat to block Cameron’s deal if it doesn’t get an EU border pledge.

Greece wants its EU peers to pledge to keep their borders open to refugees until March or it will refuse to adopt an accord keeping Britain in the bloc at marathon talks on Friday, a government source said.

“We are asking for a unanimous decision that until (an EU-Turkey summit planned for) 6 March, no state will unilaterally close its borders... if not, the Greek government will not approve the conclusion text” at the so-called Brexit summit, the source told AFP.

The arrival of over a million refugees and migrants in Europe last year has caused a chain reaction of border closures and restrictions among several EU member states.

As the main gateway into Europe, Greece is particularly worried that scores of thousands of refugees and migrants will become trapped on its territory.

Austria earlier Friday announced it would only accept a maximum of 80 asylum applications per day, and also limited the daily number of people transiting through to seek asylum in a neighbouring state to 3,200.

“If Austria closes its borders there will be a domino effect towards us,” the Greek government source added.

“(German Chancellor Angela) Merkel has pledged that Germany’s position will not change (until 6 March). We are asking the remaining member states to do the same,” the official said.

French President Francois Hollande talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during a European Union leaders summit in Brussels
French President Francois Hollande talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during a European Union leaders summit in Brussels
 Photograph: POOL/Reuters

Updated

Cue English lunch gags:

Some cabinet ministers are now assuming that the meeting which David Cameron had been expected to call on his return with a deal will now take place tomorrow, according to Sam Coates of the Times.

Adam Afriyie, the Tory eurosceptic MP, has been providing some ..er.. interesting metaphors for the negotiations and the UK’s relationship with the EU

“I sometimes think of it as if the UK is incarcerated, unfairly of course. It’s like the prison wardens saying you should really stay and we’ll give you an extra bowel of gruel.”

Updated

English lunch delayed until tea time

“English lunch” has been put back yet another hour until tea time.

What was originally supposed to be an “English breakfast” meeting, then became “English brunch”, then “English lunch” and has now been put back till early teatime.

No wonder some delegations are reported to have extending hotel bookings.

There’s been more confirmation that Greece is threatening to scupper the whole summit over border pledges.

BBC Newsnight’s diplomatic editor says the threat could wreck the summit.

Crunch time. David Cameron is been holding talks with Poland’s prime minister Beata Szydło.

Consensus will not be reached unless the hundreds of thousands of Poles already living in the UK are allowed to retain their access to in-work benefits and child benefit, a foreign policy advisor to the Polish president told the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour on Thursday.

Krzysztof Szczerski said Warsaw would block any move to hit the benefits of up to 600,000 Poles resident in Britain. “We cannot accept retrospective legislation,” he said. “Those that are in the system and part of the system cannot have their rights taken away.”

Poland has accepted the principle of a minimum four-year emergency brake on in work benefits, but their refusal to accept a cut in benefits that applies to Poles already working in the UK shows how tough negotiations have been and how a deal might have a limited impact on migration.

Szczerski said his government, led by the rightwing Law and Justice party, was prepared to accept that new Polish child benefit claimants working in the UK should not be able to claim benefits at UK rates for its children still in Poland, as long as issues of indexation were resolved.

The talks in Brussels may well focus on whether the so-called British emergency brake temporarily depriving EU migrants of access to in-work benefits is seen as an effective way of controlling migration in to the UK.

It’s the inter-linking of issues that negotiators in Brussels would not want - more on that reported threat of a Greek veto:

Faisal Islam of Sky News also reports that ‘senior sources’ in the Greek government confirmed that a threat to veto the negotiations was made, although Athens does not have a problem ‘pers se’ with the British proposals.

Updated

The chances of UK voters opting to remain in the European Union in a referendum are at 67%, according to a betting barometer being run by Ladbrokes, which is based on live odds.

It’s a slight rise towards that outcome from a few days ago.

The lawyers are still at it, EU Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas assures us.

Eurosceptic MEP Danniel Hannan has seized on that comment by Lithuania’s president about a “facing saving” deal.

Coming to a television screen near you soon no doubt: UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s new tie (do not adjust your sets)

Irish ministers have joined business leaders from both sides of the Irish Sea to plead for a deal to keep Britain in the EU, writes Henry McDonald.

Paschal Donohoe, the Republic’s Minister for Transport, Sport and Tourism, told a gathering at the British Irish Chamber of Commerce that “it is undoubtedly in the interests of Ireland, and of the European Union as a whole, that the UK should remain in the Union and contributing to that outcome is the government’s overall objective in these (Brussels) negotiations.”

Meanwhile the President of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce warned those attending the Intercontinental Hotel one day conference about the economic impact on Ireland of Brexit.

Paul Drechsler CBE, said: “When the UK sneezes, Ireland catches a cold. And it’s not hard to see why. Trade between Britain and Ireland stands at 1 billion euros a week - accounting for 30% of imports into Ireland. Ireland is the UK’s largest market for food and drink and our second for clothing, fashion, footwear. “

Dreschsler warned that post-Brexit trade between Ireland and Britain could be reduced by 20% or more.

European parliament president Martin Schulz says he believes there will be a conclusion today.

The European parliament president, Martin Schulz, says he is optimistic that a deal will be reached on an EU deal for Britain on Friday. Speaking in Brussels before the summit resumed on Friday, he says compromise is needed

Updated

Czech leader Bohuslav Sobotka, the key player in the Visegrád Four, is now holding talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Lithuania’s president, Dalia Grybauskaitè, appears resigned to a “face saving” deal, tweeting that it will be up to the British public to decide in the referendum.

So what is the background to Greek concerns? As we reported yesterday, the leaders of four anti-immigration eastern European countries met in Prague on Monday and demanded alternative EU policies by next month.

Crucially, their plan amounts to exporting Hungary’s zero-immigration razor-wire model to the Balkans, sealing Macedonia’s border with northern Greece, and bottling up the vast numbers of refugees in Greece unless they are deported back to Turkey.

Read more here:

Refugees and migrants reach the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images.
Refugees and migrants reach the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

He’s been a relatively peripheral figure so far overall in at these talks (in contrast to many other) but could Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras be about to start playing a more assertive role?

MPs, like the rest of us, our waiting for news of a deal.

Tory MP Owen Paterson, a former environment secretary, and Labour MP Chuka Umunna, a former shadow business secretary, comment on David Cameron’s attempts in Brussels to renegotiate Britain’s EU membership terms on Friday

Downing Street sources say David Cameron is about to have a meeting with the Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo who has voiced concerns about UK demands for restrictions on in-work benefits and child benefit.

Updated

He told us so? The Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief, Philip Oltermann, wondered a year ago if David Cameron would pay the price for trying to negotiate with Germany over Eastern Europe’s head.

If Britain really wants to have a serious conversation about immigration with the rest of the EU – as now every party insists it does – it needs to start talkingto the countries it has spent a year talking about.

With a Polish president of the European council, and commission vice-presidents from Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia, politicians from the former eastern bloc are an increasingly powerful voice in Brussels.

Has Cameron been paying the price in the last 48 hours?

A new poll suggests that 36% of Britons would vote to leave the European Union, with 34% in favour of staying.

It’s a figure that won’t please David Cameron as he continues to negotiate in Brussels. But it’s also worth keeping in mind that telephone polls have tended to suggest support is higher for staying in the EU than those, like this one from TNS, which are based on online responses.

The poll of more than 1,000 people, carried out between February 11 and 15, also found that 23% are still undecided.

When respondents were asked what they thought the result of the referendum would be, 38% said they thought the UK would remain in the EU against 28% who believed that there would be a withdrawal.

As with other research, the poll found that support for staying in was at its highest among the young. Nearly half of 18 to 24-year-olds want the UK to remain. By contrast, 46% of those aged over 55% wanted to leave.

Scottish voters, again, were also more likely to want to remain, with 45% wanting the UK to stay in the union.

Updated

English lunch delayed

The “English Lunch” has been put back till 2.30pm (CET) 1.30pm (GMT) as bilateral talks continue.

Donald Tusk’s spokesman Preben Aamann announced the changing timetable.

Updated

The Visegrad-4 of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Czech Republic are still troubled by Britain’s plans to restrict child benefit to EU migrants, Jennifer Rankin reports.

European Council President Donald Tusk has been holding talks with Czech leader Bohuslav Sobotka in an attempt to allay those concerns.

Ian Traynor has more on emergency brake haggling:

While Cameron demanded a 13-year period for applying the four-year emergency brake on in-work benefits for EU migrant workers in the UK and the east European countries would allow no longer than five years, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission suggested a duration of seven years.

The UK demand was also for seven years but then extendable by two three-year stretches. According to sources in the negotiations, no one actually believes that the emergency brake will ever be extended, so seven years could be the outcome.

Britain and eastern Europe are also sharply at odds over new rules indexing child benefit payments for EU migrants in the UK and elsewhere in western Europe. Britain insists that the new rules apply to all EU migrant workers in the UK, while the east Europeans argue it can only be used for new cases.

The compromise being suggested here, according to negotiating sources, is for a transition period of several years before all EU migrant workers have the benefits indexed. This is to apply only where the migrants’ offspring have been left at home.

France is not alone in concerns that the UK is seeking to carve out from EU-wide regulations special protections and veto powers for the City of London, writes Alberto Nardelli.

Although President François Hollande has been the most vocal of the EU leaders about this issue the Guardian understands from sources close to the negotiations that the French position is also backed by Germany, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg.

At a press conference on Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Britain’s concerns were legitimate but she stressed the need for a level playing field in the internal market - including the financial markets.

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said he had the impression that “the different positions are moving towards one another” and hoped that negotiations would come to an end today.

But he made clear that the topics on the table in Brussels would be subject to “intensive” consideration by MPs at the European Parliament.

Schulz said he wanted the UK to remain in the EU, but added: “We must make clear that the method ‘I will tell you what you must do in order for me to stay’ doesn’t work. We have to reach out to one another. I have the impression that David Cameron sees that.”

Jennifer Rankin in Brussels has the latest on the haggling about the timing of Britain’s proposals to freeze in-work benefits.

Schulz’s Twitter feed said he had a “very constructive” meeting with Matteo Renzi and Jean-Claude Juncker.

Updated

Downing Street sources told the Guardian’s Nicholas Watt, that they are in a “hinterland” where there could be a deal on Friday but there may not be one. “There could be a deal today or maybe there won’t one,” one No 10 source said. “We are in a hinterland.”

In the event of a late deal the prime minister is prepared to hold a cabinet meeting on Friday evening or on Saturday. Tusk has said the summit could last until Sunday although this was being discounted by British officials.

One official told PA that discussions on French concerns about financial regulation as “significant”.

But he added: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

“We are still here, we are still talking, so in that sense we are moving forwards. Is there a specific deal on a specific area? No.”

Cameron was ready to keep talking into the evening if necessary, and could still call a special Cabinet meeting in the evening if a deal was reached, said officials.

Asked how the UK responded to a suggestion from Tusk that the Council summit may have to be extended to Sunday to secure agreement, British officials said: “What matters is that we get the right deal, it doesn’t matter how long it takes.”

UK officials denied they were disappointed with the pace of progress, insisting: “We always thought this was going to be really tough.”

Tusk is expected to conclude one-on-one talks with national leaders by early afternoon, at which point he will assess whether he has a text worth putting before them for discussion between all 28.

Cameron: 'we're happy to stay till Sunday'

Cameron says the talks could last till Sunday, according to the BBC’s Katya Adler in Brussels.

More timetable updates from Jennifer Rankin in Brussels.

Deal or no deal: what does Cameron want from the EU? This video explains ...

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann confirmed that financial regulation remains a key sticking point.

The pro-EU thinktank Open Europe quoted him saying: “We want to reach an agreement with Britain but we cannot concede blockage of banking union or Eurozone integration.”

Earlier French President François Hollande made clear that France continues to resist a deal on financial regulation which would deliver one rule for eurozone states and another for those which do not use the single currency.

The French leader told reporters that he wanted “a financial regulation system which is valid in all parts of Europe, and that there should be no right of veto or prevention”.

Hollande said France wanted to ensure that Europe would be able to “fight against speculation and fight against financial crises in the same way and with the same organisations everywhere”.

Taavi Roivas
Taavi Roivas Photograph: Francois Walschaerts/AP

There were hopeful noises for Cameron from Estonia’s prime minister, Taavi Roivas.

He said he believed it was possible for a fair deal to be agreed on Friday.

“We all, of course, pursue our national interests but we should also bear in mind that should Britain leave we all get nothing,” Rovias said on his way into the talks

Referring to the British prime minister by his first name, Roivas added: “As Prime Minister of Estonia, I am a firm supporter of reaching an agreement and getting David a deal that he can recommend for the British people to vote for.”

No bacon and eggs on the table in talks between Merkel, Hollande and Tspiras. Just biscuits and grapes.

Xavier Bettel
Xavier Bettel Photograph: Francois Walschaerts/AP

Luxembourg’s prime minister confirmed that the timetable is slipping say he hopes a deal can be reached “by the end of the afternoon”.

Xavier Bettel, said: “The proposals on the table don’t satisfy all parties. We haven’t finished yet. I hope that by the end of the afternoon we will have a text that everyone can agree.”

So much for Cameron’s plans for a cabinet meeting this afternoon.

And here’s video of Cameron on his way into the talks.

UK prime minister David Cameron tells reporters he will only do a deal if he gets what Britain needs. Speaking as he arrived at the EU summit in Brussels on Friday, Cameron pledged to get back in the negotiating room and ‘do everything I can’ to secure a deal

Here’s video of that fighting talk from Hollande on the way into Friday’s talks.

Updated

France’s far right National Front is relishing the prospect of Brexit, writes Bruce Crumley in Paris.

Speaking on France Info radio this morning, Florian Philippot, National Front vice-president and Marine Le Pen soul mate, said:

“We’re watching what happens with Great Britain with interest and yearning. It’s a process we’ve proposed for a long time… I say to the British, ‘When you leave this European Union mad house, if you decide to leave it, keep the door open for us because we’ll be using it soon’.”

Peter Rabbit eating radishes
Peter Rabbit eating radishes Photograph: Beatrix Potter - Frederick Warne & Co/BBC

It is the love-in between unlikely friends that might go some way to helping David Cameron in his EU referendum campaign, writes Nicholas Watt.

Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister who is one of the EU leaders with the greatest suspicions about the UK’s renegotiation plan, is said to have been touched after Cameron presented him with a special present for his newly born baby daughter Jeanne.

EU leaders had chipped in for a collective present for Michel’s second child who was born on 21 January. But Cameron presented a special set in French of the Beatrix Potter tales, ensuring that in one corner of Belgium the Tale of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle will live on, according to No 10 sources who confirmed a report in the Times.

There were signs on Thursday that Michel, a European federalist deeply committed to the EU’s commitment to forge an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, may be willing to help the prime minister. Belgium took the lead, in concert with the French, to write into the agreement a legally binding declaration that the deal would be definitive and that Britain would not be able to renegotiate its membership terms after a second referendum. This is helpful to Cameron who wants to kill off the idea of a second referendum promoted by the Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings.

Cameron: 'we're going to do some more work'

“There is still no deal” Cameron said on his way to Friday’s talks.

He reminded reporters that he was up until 5am in talks.

The prime minister added: “I will only do deal if we get what Britain needs, so I’m going to get back in there, we’re going to do some more work and I’ll do everything I can.”

Full English of dog's breakfast?

Full English Breakfast
Full English Breakfast
 Photograph: Alamy

Negotiations have dragged on so long that what was supposed to be talks over an “English breakfast”, then became “English brunch” and have now become an “English lunch”, PA reports.


Initial plans for the two-day European Council summit in Brussels envisaged a round-table discussion on Thursday afternoon, when leaders could set out their reservations about the package, followed by late-night negotiations by officials to cross Ts and dot Is.
The process would end with a triumphant restart early on Friday when the deal could be sealed in plenty of time for Mr Cameron to return to London for a special Cabinet meeting to endorse the agreement and launch the campaign for Britain to remain in the EU.

Officials in Brussels blithely referred to the final session as “the English breakfast”, summoning up visions of hungry leaders tucking into a hearty fry-up as they handed the PM his deal.


As rumours of dissent around the table began to emerge on Thursday, however, the schedule began to slip and word in the Council’s Justus Lipsius building was that the meeting was turning into an “English brunch”.


Caterers scrambled to dig out waffles, pastries, yoghurt and whatever else it is people eat for brunch, while reporters scratched their heads and wondered if “English brunch” was a thing now and why it was they’d never been invited to one, and whether it meant they’d get an extra couple of hours in bed after a long night of summiteering.


But just as the jams and spreads were being laid out this morning, European Council spokesman Preben Aamann tweeted a further delay: “Work ongoing on revised UKinEU settlement. Next round of bilaterals at 11h. ‘English lunch’ foreseen at 13h30.”

“The British don’t see themselves as European,” says Begoña Arce, El Periódico’s correspondent in London writes Stephen Burgen in Madrid.

She writes of the British:

When they refer to Europe the UK isn’t included. Europe is “the Continent”. They are “others”, partners with whom to form alliances and enemies against whom they have to defend themselves. Hitler was unable to invade Great Britain, a fact that is borne with pride in the collective conscience.”

Francois Hollande arrives for the second day of talks
Francois Hollande arrives for the second day of talks Photograph: Stephane de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images

French President François Hollande arrived for the second day of talks “saying there still work to do”. He said there must be one set of rules “to fight against [financial] speculation”.

France is concerned that the UK is seeking to carve out special protections for the City of London and seeking to freeze rules governing the financial sector, effectively hobbling the eurozone’s freedom of manoeuvre. EU sources told the Guardian that Hollande would go on the attack over financial regulation.

“Proposals have been exchanged last night between both sides”, Hollande said on his way into Friday’s talks.

Hollande says France wants EU financial regulation to apply everywhere in order to “fight speculation and crises” with “no veto rights”.

A cartoon in Süeddeutsche Zeitung sums up German frustration at the repeated problem of British demands at EU summits.

There is a growing frustration among many European politicians that the Brexit discussions are dominating the summit at the expense of discussions about the migration crisis.

Alain Lamassoure, centre-right EMP and former French secretary of state for European, was dismissive of the UK negotiations, writes Bruce Crumley in Paris.

In an invterview with Echos he said:

This is indeed a problem for the (European) Union, but it’s above all a problem of the first order for the British. Europe’s major problem is the migrant crisis, as the euro was (before). And our experience has demonstrated the Council cannot deal with two problems at once. We will therefore lose time discussing problems that are in fact internal to politics in Great Britain and no solution will be found for the migrant crisis… It’s above all a grave problem for the British.

Here’s video from last night of German chancellor Angela Merkel saying the European Union leaders wants to keep Britain as a member.

‘Deal out of reach at the moment’

Amber Rudd
Amber Rudd Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd insisted it is premature to say whether David Cameron’s proposals are being watered down as she insisted that he would not be rushed into a deal.

“It is too early to conclude that it is a watering down of the deal that was proposed two weeks ago,” she told the Today programme, adding “we are not going to be rushed.”

Rudd said: “There are various elements moving around, we will have to wait and see to find out where they finally land.”

She played down expectations that there would be deal today. Rudd said: “What the prime minster has said is that we are making progress, but that the deal is out of reach at the moment. I don’t think we can underestimate how difficult it is to get 27 member states to agree. And he has always said this is about getting the best deal not a rushed deal. What I want is a deal that is really in our country’s interest.”

She confirmed that a “fight is going on” on the timing of Britain’s proposed emergency brake on benefits.

Updated

Douglas Carswell
Douglas Carswell Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer

Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s only MP, is looking ahead to the referendum. In a new blogpost he calls for a broad coalition for the leave campaign:

It’s because the EU will never stop centralising that the stakes are so high. This referendum isn’t just In or Out; it’s now or never.

The important thing in the Leave campaign is that Leave wins. It doesn’t matter who leads it. It doesn’t matter who said what about which campaign group. It doesn’t matter who takes the credit.

Instead of focusing on the few big names, we need to look toward the many. To win the referendum, we need to build a broad coalition of voters – bigger than any political party has assembled in recent history. If the campaign is narrow and sectional, we will lose.

We need multiple voices to reach out to people of multiple different backgrounds and opinions. We have to emphasise that people who disagree on everything else should vote Leave to ensure that those disagreements are thrashed out in a democratic, sovereign Parliament, not ignored by remote officials. Above all, we need to be positive, and show that Britain will be better off out.

Nigel Farage
Nigel Farage Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Ukip leader Nigel Farage is trying to make the most of Cameron’s difficulties at the summit. Speaking to Today he said:

“I simply cannot believe that at some point today Mr Cameron will not get some concessions out of these people because they must know that if Cameron is sent home totally humiliated, Brexit has got that little bit closer.

“We keep doing this. Government after government says we are going to reform the European Union but the problem is the word ‘reform’ in Britain means something completely different here. ‘Reform’ here means pushing on to closer economic and political union.

There will have to be a deal but, frankly, we really are scratching around at the edges here. There is no fundamental renegotiation on offer.”

Updated

Richard Branson
Richard Branson Photograph: CNBC/Getty Images

Richard Branson reaffirmed his pro-EU stance as he prepared to unveil Virgin Galactic’s latest spacecraft, PA reports.

The tycoon said “I think it would be a very, very, very, very sad day if British people voted to leave, I think it would be very, very damaging for Great Britain.

“I love Great Britain and I think it would be the start of most likely the break-up of the European Union.”

He told Sky News that his grandfather fought in the First World War and his father in the Second and pointed out there had been no wars within Europe since.

He added: “Having a European Union - there is so many benefits and I just hope sense will prevail when it comes to having the vote on it.”

However Sir Richard said he was “a bit distracted with space” ahead of the roll-out of the successor to the doomed prototype which crashed in October 2014, killing its co-pilot.

Timetable slipping

Elmar Brok
Elmar Brok Photograph: Francois Lenoir/Reuters

One of the key “sherpas” in the talks said the negotiations could run into the weekend and that the key sticking point remains the UK’s plans to curb benefits for EU migrants.

Elmar Brok, of European People’s Party and one of three MEP representing the European Parliament in the negotiations, confirmed the timetable is slipping.

He said: “We will have the discussion with Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker at 12.30 (CET) so that means the renegotiations will start afterwards. Before that [there will be] bilaterals with Tusk and Juncker with the leaders of the different nations.”

Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the talks could last into the weekend, he said: “That might be a possibility. But on the other side is the possibility that all these bilaterals could lead to a proposal that is more or less acceptable. It will be relatively fast or relatively long. Nobody knows. That is the question.”

Brok added: “As always in life the most difficult things are done in the last minute.”

He insisted that “major problems are solved” but he explained the key disagreements centred around benefits and the timing of the emergency brake.

Brok said it was possible that there would be a change to the Lisbon treaty to allow the UK to opt out of ever closer union. “It is sad that Britain has an exception from further political integration. Here there is more or less and understanding that it might be possible. It will be clear that Britain as a non-Euro member will have no disadvantages within the internal market. What is being negotiated now by us, by the French and others, is whether it should not have advantages. Whether there is a level playing field. I think this is more or less sorted out.”

Brok said there was less agreement on proposed welfare changes. “We are now in that difficult question of social benefits. If we need an emergency brake, then a brake should not work 13 years. That it is forever in working life for someone, this will be very difficult to accept by eastern European, southern European countries.”

Brok said the aim was to have everything decided before Tusk and Juncker meets members of the European parliament. “That is the aim - they want to talk with the European parliament last because of the special role we play - especially in the social benefit questions. We have to say yes to that otherwise we will have problems in the parliament. We will be asked whether the compromise that is emerging will be acceptable for us.

Updated

What we know so far

Talks in Brussels on the future of the UK within the EU have continued throughout Thursday night into Friday, with British prime minister David Cameron leaving a bilateral meeting at 5.30am CET (4.30am GMT) – giving no word on the progress of the discussions.

Who met with whom?

European Council president – and key broker – Donald Tusk, along with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker held late-night bilateral talks with several leaders crucial to the UK/EU deal:

  • Cameron (who went in first, and then again after the others had said their piece)
  • French president François Hollande
  • Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka
  • Belgian PM Charles Michel.

A proposal, drawn up by the Belgians and supported by the French, seeks to impose a condition that Britain could not try to renegotiate further its terms of membership if it were to vote to leave the EU.

What David Cameron said

Post-bilateral talks, nothing … yet. A Downing Street source told Press Association the night had been “hard going”.

What Donald Tusk said

In a brief press conference in the early hours of Friday, before he headed into bilateral talks with Cameron, Tusk told reporters:

We have made some progress but a lot still remains to be done.

What the other leaders said

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said there had been:

some timid steps forward on migration, some steps back on a UK deal …

I’m always confident, but a bit less optimistic than when I arrived.

Finnish PM Juha Sipilä suggested an agreement would be struck by Friday:

The European Council debate on migration is coming to an end. Then UK negotiations continue. The project should be ready by morning.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said:

I think it is going well. I hope that tomorrow [Friday] we will have a deal.

But Dutch PM Mark Rutte raised the possibility of talks on a UK deal running into Saturday and Irish taoiseach Enda Kenny warned:

It might take longer than they think.

And German chancellor Angela Merkel said discussions on Europe’s migration crisis were the “priority” for the summit:

The important statement for me today is that we have not only reaffirmed the EU-Turkey action plan, but we have said it is our priority.

What happens next?

Full discussions between the leaders are due to resume around 9.30am CET (8.30am GMT), with bilateral talks expected to start again around 11am local time.

Before that, a number of spin-off talks are slated to take place, including between Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Alexis Tsipras.

A fresh draft deal could be tabled by late morning. And then, importantly, it’s lunch at 1.30pm.

The big question

Where did the union flag go? From the discussion on Thursday …

British Prime Minister David Cameron, right, and European Council President Donald Tusk, left, attend during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. European Union leaders are holding a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday to hammer out a deal designed to keep Britain in the 28-nation bloc. (Yves Herman, Pool Photo via AP)
Left-right: Some men, plus Union and European flags. Photograph: Yves Herman/AP

… to the dead-of-night talks in the early hours of Friday.

EU leaders meet amid hopes of an agreement with Britain on reforms.
Fewer men. Fewer flags. Photograph: Yves Herman/Pool/EPA

Answers on a postcard with a stamp bearing Her Majesty’s head, please.

I’m now signing out and handing this live blog over to my colleague Matthew Weaver, who’ll bring you the latest with talks set to resume in Brussels.

The Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, Jennifer Rankin, has compiled these profiles of Cameron’s friends, foes and on-the-fences as he tries to renegotiate the UK’s place within the EU.

Three of the leaders who also held bilateral talks with Tusk and Juncker overnight feature in the so-called “awkward squad”:

Bohuslav Sobotka, Czech Republic

Sobotka is the chair of the Visegrád countries. A social democrat, he is less Eurosceptic than some of his predecessors and is staunchly opposed to UK plans to cut child benefit for children living outside Britain.

French president François Hollande gets into his car at the end of day one of the EU summit.
French president François Hollande gets into his car at the end of day one of the EU summit. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

François Hollande, France

The president has not made many public interventions into the British debate, but behind the scenes French officials have played a vital role in watering down the British text. France is concerned that the UK could walk away with strong protections for the City of London, which would undermine the smooth functioning of the eurozone. Paris is fighting a rearguard action against UK demands to get a special procedure written into EU law that would allow non-eurozone countries to slow down eurozone laws.

Charles Michel, Belgium

Small countries like the EU because it stands up for their interests against bigger powers. Nowhere is this more true than Belgium. Its Francophone, liberal prime minister has been a staunch defender of the interests of the EU in the UK negotiations. Belgium has been leading efforts to defend the “ever-closer union” provision of the treaties. Reportedly told Cameron recently: “If you want to go, just go. We will not let you ruin Europe by staying.”

Updated

What are the sticking points?

Four key questions need to be thrashed out in any UK/EU deal:

The emergency brake

How long could Britain impose the emergency brake to restrict in-work benefits for EU migrants in the UK? This has been complicated by questions over whether other member countries might want to adopt the scheme.

Curbs on benefits

There is disagreement – particularly from Poland – over UK efforts to restrict child benefit paid to EU workers within the UK whose children live in their home country. Also a bone of contention is whether any curbs should be applied retrospectively to EU migrants already in the UK.

‘Ever-closer union’

Britain wants a treaty change to formalise the UK’s exemption from the EU’s founding declaration to forge an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe. Some countries think the formal opt-out should be sufficient.

Financial regulation

The UK seeks a further treaty change to underpin protections for non-eurozone members in the single market – opposed by France, which is said to see the move as a restriction on the eurozone and “special protection” for the City of London.

So, what if no deal is reached?

It doesn’t necessarily mean an inexorable skid towards Brexit. The likelihood is that EU leaders would probably agree to a fresh summit within the next 10 days – this timeline would ensure that Cameron could still stage a referendum by the expected date of 23 June.

And if there is a deal?

Cameron will head directly back to London – after a celebratory Brussels press conference – and straight into a special cabinet meeting.

But the announcement that the government will formally endorse the deal, and campaign to stay in the EU, lets off the leash those cabinet members who want to campaign for Brexit.

Cameron had two meetings overnight with Tusk, No 10 has said, as well as a third with French president François Hollande also in attendance.

Press Association cites a Downing Street source saying:

It’s hard going. Some signs of progress but nothing yet agreed and still a lot to do.

We expect the PM will have a further bilateral with Donald Tusk at 11.45.

The Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief, Philip Oltermann, sends this early dispatch:

In Eurosceptic circles, the idea prevails that the European Union is essentially a racket dominated by German interests. Yet the opposition David Cameron faced in Brussels last night had very little to do with Europe’s biggest economy.

In fact, what is striking is how eager Angela Merkel appears to wave through Cameron’s reform requests. Asked about the British prime minister upping his demands for the duration of the “emergency brake” to a maximum of 13 years, Merkel this morning said:

I believe we should listen very closely to Britain’s position on this. To be honest, I am not going to spend my time haggling for one month more or one month less.

German chancellor Angela Merkel gives a press conference at the end of the first day of the summit.
German chancellor Angela Merkel gives a press conference at the end of the first day of the summit. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA

One reason, of course, is that the German chancellor is saving herself for much bigger battles over the refugee crisis.

But it is also true the German government – as well as others, such as Austria and the Danes – seems to have recently developed a genuine fondness for some of Cameron’s proposals, such as the indexation of child benefits.

Germany pays considerably more child benefits for Polish migrants than Britain does, and after the recent clashes over refugee policies, Merkel’s government has little interest in doing Eastern Europe any favours.

What happens now?

Friday’s (daylight) plans have been disrupted a little by Friday’s (night-time) talks.

But it looks as if the negotiations will resume again around 9.30am CET (8.30am GMT), with bilateral talks expected to start again around 11am local time.

Before that, a number of spin-off talks are slated to take place, including between Angela Merkel, François Hollande and Alexis Tsipras.

A fresh draft deal could be tabled by late morning.

And then, importantly, it’s lunch at 1.30pm.

For an at-a-glance guide to what happened in Brussels overnight, take a look at our (well, my) EU briefing:

Warning: includes gratuitous conspiracy theorising about the appearance and disappearance of Union flags in the meeting rooms.

Our latest report rounds up the key moves – and lack of – overnight:

Negotiations that could decide Britain’s future in the European Union remain on a knife-edge after all-night meetings in Brussels ended without any form of a deal.

David Cameron left talks with European Council president Donald Tusk and commission president Jean-Claude Juncker at 5.30am (CET), making no comment. Further discussions are reportedly scheduled for 9am.

Cameron has been warned by EU leaders that he would not be given a second chance if he failed to strike an agreement at the gathering of 28 heads of government.

Shortly before the talks broke up Tusk, a key broker in the negotiations, said: “For now I can only say that we have made some progress but a lot needs to be done.”

Read the full article here:

Questioned in the early hours of Friday – before the latest round of bilateral talks with David Cameron and other leaders – Donald Tusk said some progress had been made on a UK/EU deal, “but a lot still remains to be done”.

European council president Donald Tusk says much remains to be worked out in talks to keep Britain in the EU.

Opening summary

Talks in Brussels on the future of the UK within the EU have continued throughout the night, with British prime minister David Cameron leaving a bilateral meeting at 5.30am local time – giving no word on the progress of the discussions.

Here is what we do know, as day two emerges from a sleepless day one:

  • Donald Tusk, president of the European Council and a key broker of any potential UK deal, said negotiations were moving ahead slowly:

We have made some progress but a lot still remains to be done.

  • Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker also held late-night talks with French president François Hollande, Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka and Belgian PM Charles Michel, all of whom have reservations about the UK plans. A proposal, drawn up by the Belgians and supported by the French, stresses that Britain could not seek to further renegotiate its terms of membership if it were to vote to leave the EU.
Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and British prime minister David Cameron meet in the early hours of Friday in an attempt to thrash out a deal.
Donald Tusk, Jean-Claude Juncker and British prime minister David Cameron meet in the early hours of Friday in an attempt to thrash out a deal. Photograph: Yves Herman/Pool/EPA
  • Talks were said to be sticking on a number of key points, including the duration of the so-called emergency brake to restrict in-work benefits for EU migrants in the UK; curbs on child benefit for EU migrants whose children are not in the UK; and potential treaty changes to exempt formally the UK from the goal of “ever-closer union” and to underpin protections for non-eurozone members.
  • Full discussions between the leaders are due to resume within hours, although earlier spin-off talks are mooted to include a meeting between Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s François Hollande and Greece’s Alexis Tsipras.
  • Leaders offered differing verdicts on any hope of a UK/EU deal, with Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi saying he was “less optimistic” than he had been. Finnish PM Juha Sipilä suggested an agreement would be struck by Friday, echoing Spain’s Mariano Rajoy, who said things were “going well”. But Dutch PM Mark Rutte raised the possibility of talks on a UK deal running into Saturday, and Irish taoiseach Enda Kenny warned: “It might take longer than they think.”
German chancellor Angela Merkel leaves at the end of the first day of talks.
German chancellor Angela Merkel leaves at the end of the first day of talks. Photograph: Thierry Charlier/AFP/Getty Images
  • Agreement was reached – after a dinner lasting five-and-a-half hours – on a rescheduled meeting between EU leaders and Turkey, pencilled in for 5 March, to address the ongoing migration crisis.
  • Merkel said the migration talks were the “priority” for the summit:

The important statement for me today is that we have not only reaffirmed the EU-Turkey action plan, but we have said it is our priority.

  • Ukip leader Nigel Farage said Cameron was acting “rather like Oliver Twist”:

He has come along with his begging bowl, saying please sir, can we have more concessions? Most of what you are seeing here is theatre. It’s theatre from Mr Cameron and it’s theatre from the other leaders.

Updated

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