DONALD TUSK’S REFORM PROPOSAL FOR BRITAIN

MIGRATION AND BENEFITS

• A watered-down emergency brake will limit migrants' access to benefits for four years immediately after the referendum. Rather than a total ban, access to in-work benefits will be "graduated from an initial complete exclusion but gradually increasing"/
• Migrants will still be able to send benefits to their children abroad, just in lower amounts than they currently do.
• The UK will be given new powers to stop suspected terrorists and criminals coming to the UK, not only if a threat is "imminent".
• New rules will stop people coming to the UK via "sham marriages". They will prevent non-EU citizens marrying an EU citizen to then live and work in Britain.

SOVEREIGNTY

• The UK "is not committed to further political integration into the European Union"
• A "red card" system will allow the House of Commons to band together with like-minded EU parliaments and block unwanted Brussels legislation.

ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE

• The deal protects the pound by recognising in law  for the first time  that the EU has more than one currency. 
• British taxpayers' money can never be liable to support the eurozone.
• Any issues which affect all member states must be discussed by all member states not just countries in the eurozone

COMPETITIVENESS

• The EU will increase efforts to cut bureaucracy, especially on small and medium enterprises, which the UK Government has said damages UK businesses.

The EU summit on 18-19 February 2016, will be dedicated to the talks with the UK as well as the migration crisis.

European Parliament

Most MEPs stressed that the UK staying in the EU would be better for both the country itself as well as for the other member states, but questioned some of the requested reforms.

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, welcomed Tusk’s proposals: "The settlement that has been proposed is fair for the UK and fair for the other 27 member States, and also fair for the European Parliament.” He also added: "The UK benefits from more protocols and opt outs than any other member state."

EPP leader Manfred Weber, from Germany, called Tusk’s proposal “a sound basis” for an agreement with the UK. "We want UK to stay in the EU and British people to be convinced of the fact that it is better to stay in the family,” he said, before warning: "We don't want only a British Europe, we want a proposal that would be a Europe for all.”

However, some MEPs also questioned some of the reforms being proposed, while some rejected them all together.

Gabriele Zimmer, the German chair of the GUE/NGL group, hit out at the possibility for an opt-out from the free movement for workers in the EU, which she labelled "the idea of the social union being buried".

Nigel Farage, the UK co-chair of the EFDD group, criticised the proposed changes. He said that Cameron's renegotiation began with ambitious intentions such as Treaty change, control of free movement and fundamental change in Britain's relations with the EU. "And what we got is a letter from Mr Tusk in which there is no Treaty change, no powers returned to the UK, no control over our borders. It's really rather pathetic."

Diane Dodds, a non-attached member from the UK, also criticised the result of the negotiations, saying it amounted to a “failure of the British Prime Minister to stand up for the United Kingdom”.

Many MEPs stressed that both the EU and the UK would be better off together. Gianni Pittella, the Italian chair of the S&D group, said: “It is essential for the UK that it stays in the European Union. The UK outside the EU is weaker. We need to be able to speak clearly about the advantages that UK citizens get, because of the continued membership in the European Union."

Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian leader of the ALDE group, said the UK leaving the EU would lead to a loss of influence: “Europe without Great Britain doesn't count, is not the counterweights against China, against Russia, against the United States,it's in fact Putin, who wins in this game in the end, because Putin likes a divided Europe.”

Rebecca Harms, the German co-chair of the Greens/EFA group, said: "For me it is one of these moments when we have to talk about Europe, where we came from, for example. And this is very simple to say because we came from war, we achieved peace"

Not all MEPs agreed on the need for the UK to stay in the EU. Marine Le Pen, the French co-chair of the ENF group, said: "The Brits had have enough of the European Union, so they want to get out of the EU. They miss their sovereignty, their ability to solve problems at a national level, they got their own way at looking at it, their own culture."