17-02-2016
EU leaders will try to water down Tusk's welfare proposal, Telegraph says
European Council President Donald Tusk said eastern EU member states remain ambivalent about plans to restrict social benefits for non-British EU workers, Bloomberg reported. Tusk said his offer to grant Britain an “emergency brake” on welfare for new migrants from the EU remains a contentious issue for Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. According to the Telegraph, EU leaders at their summit on Thursday and Friday will seek to water-down this welfare reform, making it limited to only newly-arrived migrants. “This is a critical moment,” Tusk said on Monday according to AP. “The risk of break-up is real,” he was quoted by the news agency. See also our cepAdhoc on the matter.