BRUSSELS: Talks on a deal to keep Britain in the EU will go down to the wire at a leaders summit next week after negotiators failed to reach a breakthrough on the key issues on Thursday, European sources said.

The main sticking points include Britain’s demands for protection for countries that do not use the euro currency and the length of time it can limit welfare benefits for European Union migrant workers, they said.

Negotiators made “good progress on technical, legal clarifications” to proposals that EU chief Donald Tusk made last week to try to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron’s reform demands, an EU source said.

“But main political issues are still outstanding... and they will have to be dealt with by leaders next week,” an EU source said after the talks wrapped up in Brussels.

Tusk, who visits Berlin, Paris and other capitals next week for talks on the deal, will “intensify his consultations with leaders” in a bid to “ensure broad political support for the settlement,” the source added.

Cameron wants a deal at the February 18-19 summit before holding a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, probably in June.

In a sign that one of the most controversial issues is Britain’s demands for safeguards for so-called “euro outs”, Tusk on Thursday met Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijssebloem, European Central Bank official Benoit Coeure and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss the “Brexit” talks. A British government spokeswoman said that the main proposals for Britain remained “on the table untouched”. “We think we are in a good place, although there is more work to do and more details to be nailed down, and that work will continue,” the spokeswoman said.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016

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