European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker travels to the UK today for talks with David Cameron in the first bilateral meeting between the British prime minister and a senior European Union official since the Conservative Party's election victory.
Mr Cameron will kick-start a week of high-level diplomatic meetings aimed at securing political support for the UK’s renegotiation of its relationship with the EU, with a working dinner with Mr Juncker at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence.
The Conservative leader, who will announce details of the EU referendum Bill in the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, is also expected to hold talks with German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president François Hollande in the next week.
Mr Cameron met fellow EU leaders for the first time at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Riga on Friday, where he held informal talks with leaders of eastern European countries on the fringes of the summit.
The Conservative Party has pledged to hold a referendum on EU membership before 2017, though the government is understood to favour an earlier referendum, possibly before the end of next year.
Membership referendum
Yesterday,
Harriet Harman
, the acting leader of the
Labour
Party, said the main opposition party would support Mr Cameron’s plans for a referendum on EU membership. Ms Harman said that the Labour Party would campaign for Britain to stay within the EU.
While commission sources suggested that the evening meeting between Mr Juncker and Mr Cameron was exploratory, Mr Juncker, alongside Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, will play a key role in Britain's attempted renegotiation of its membership of the EU in the coming months.
British demands
Among the changes the British government is seeking before it puts membership of the EU to a plebiscite, are limitations on benefits that can be claimed by immigrants to Britain from the EU, an exemption from the EU’s pledge to move towards “ever-closer union” and safeguards to guarantee the rights of non-euro zone countries who are members of the EU.
Yesterday, business secretary Sajid Javid said changes to tax credits for workers, including EU migrants, would form a key part of Britain's negotiating demands.
A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times yesterday found that 44 per cent of those surveyed would opt to stay in the EU, while 36 per cent would leave.
