British Prime Minister David Cameron sealed a deal for special status in the European Unions, EU, after a marathon summit, paving the way for him to campaign to stay in the bloc in a historic referendum.
The unanimous agreement came after two days and nights of intense negotiations in Brussels, with Cameron overcoming dogged opposition among other European leaders on all the major reforms he sought.
But Cameron must immediately embark on the difficult process of selling the deal at home to eurosceptic members of his own party and a hostile press ahead of the referendum, expected on June 23rd.
It was a tactful way of acknowledging he has little control over his deeply divided party, despite winning re-election last year by a surprisingly large margin.
“I believe we are stronger, safer and better off inside a reformed European Union,” he told a news conference. “And that is why I will be campaigning with all my heart and soul to persuade the British people to remain in the reformed European Union that we have secured today.”
Supporters and opponents
The Euroskeptic “Vote Leave” campaign was quick to dismiss what it called “Cameron’s hollow deal” as bad for Britain. The opposition Labour Party, which unabashedly supports Britain’s continued EU membership, also scoffed at Cameron’s deal.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called it a “theatrical sideshow… designed to appease his opponents within the Conservative Party.”
“They are not about delivering reforms that would make the EU work better for working people,” Corbyn said, accusing the premier of bringing “an internal Conservative Party dispute to international proportions.”