Free internal migration in the
European Union is "an important European accomplishment", but
Germany shares an interest in battling any abuse of the system, the
spokesman said, reiterating the country's stance, after a report in Spiegel
magazine that Merkel warned UK Prime Minister David Cameron his country was
close to the "point of no return" over the EU.
"The great asset of free
movement of persons within the European Union is, for Germany, not
negotiable - the chancellor has said that," Steffen Seibert told
reporters.
"She has also said there is a
strong interest in working together to jointly tackle possible problems
with the abusive utilization of free movement of persons," he added.
"In Germany we're slowly losing
our sense of where the British are heading," SPD deputy leader in the
Bundestag Axel Schäfer told The Local.
"As a pro-European social
democrat, I regret this anti-European populism."
He relates a conversation he had
with British Minister for Europe David Lidington when he visited Berlin in
June.
"Mr Minister, do you think you,
Britain, export more to North Rhine-Westphalia or to India?" he asked.
"Then why would you want to
leave the Union?" Schäfer asked after Lidington answered correctly that
the country did more trade with Schäfer's home state.
Schäfer was also sharply critical of
Cameron's promise of a new referendum on Britain's EU membership in 2017 if his
Conservative Party wins the next UK election in May 2015.
"The referendum in 1976 was
supposed to be binding. It's not like a football player who can change club all
the time," he said. "This is totally absurd."
Freedom of movement “is something
all the member states have agreed on and one of the fundamental characteristics
of the Union,” Julian Rappold of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP)
told The Local.
“Merkel has already tasked herself
with keeping the EU together, even giving concessions to Cameron to make things
easier for him at home,” he pointed out.
“But the debate inside the UK and in
the rest of Europe are really decoupled from one another. The readiness of the
German government, of Merkel, to make concessions, is really overstated.”
For Rappold, Merkel's warning to
Cameron was also directed at German voters, worried that Germany is
sacrificing EU principles to keep the UK happy.
“I don't think Merkel's position has
changed at all,” said Michael Wohlgemuth of think-tank Open Europe Berlin.
“She has always said that one should
not tamper with the fundamental principles of free movement in the EU, which is
an essential part of the single market.”
He noted that the most Merkel is
reported to have said is that a UK exit is “possible” - far from the Chancellor
being in favour of a 'Brexit'.
Wohlgemuth told The Local that
Germany's aging population means there is much more need for young immigrants
to fill skilled jobs in the coming decades than in the UK.
“These are small skirmishes where
Cameron is testing the readiness of other EU states to make concessions,”
Rappold said.
“Britain is trying to find a
German-compatible formulation to get agreement. Merkel is trying to set the boundaries.”
The UK's chancellor, George Osborne,
played down the row on Monday morning.
He said: “What we have today is a
story which is based on speculation about what Angela Merkel might have said
about something that David Cameron might say in the future. So I think it’s a
little bit thin.
“We have had good discussions with
the Germans; I was in Berlin just a few days ago myself.
"They understand the disquiet
that is caused amongst British people when you have people coming from other
parts of Europe here to claim our benefits, who don’t necessarily have jobs to
go to. This is creating a huge pressure on public services and the British
public want this addressed.
“So we’re going to do this in a calm
and rational way, but the British people want this addressed. We’re employed by
the British people and that’s what we’re going to do.”
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