GERMANY HAD EU RECOGNITION

Germany had EU renegotiation veto - IDS

Germany had a "de facto veto" over David Cameron's EU renegotiations, ex-minister Iain Duncan Smith has said.

He told the Sun the PM ditched plans in 2014 to demand an emergency brake on migration after Germany objected.
Downing Street said curbs it negotiated on in-work benefits for EU migrants were a "more effective" way forward.
It comes as a British Chambers of Commerce survey suggests most business people back Remain but the gap with those backing Leave has narrowed.
In other developments:

• Five former heads of Nato claimed the UK would lose influence and "give succour to its enemies" by leaving the EU - claims dismissed as scaremongering by Boris Johnson
• Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is to launch his party's campaign, saying Labour votes will be crucial if the Remain side is to win
• Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames tells BBC Newsnight he believes his grandfather Winston Churchill would have voted to stay in the EU, although that view has been challenged by Leave supporters

Leave campaigners have sought to expose what they say is the gulf between the goals Mr Cameron set for himself in his famous "Bloomberg Speech" in January 2013 - when he announced plans for the referendum - and the reality of what he subsequently achieved.

'On a lead'

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Ahead of a speech on the EU and welfare on Tuesday, Mr Duncan Smith has made his most outspoken attack to date on the PM's attempts to negotiate a better deal for the UK in the EU, which concluded in February, telling the newspaper they had "failed".

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The former Conservative leader, who resigned from the cabinet last month in a dispute over disability benefit cuts, described the concessions gained as "very marginal" and suggested that, in return, the UK had lost its veto on future fiscal and political integration within the eurozone.
"The EU knew that our veto was very powerful and we have given it away," he told the newspaper. "The reform failed. We got nothing on border control at all. We are now in a worse position than we were before.
"We have gone from wanting to lead in Europe to being on the end of a lead in Europe."

While being a "cheerleader" for the PM's reform efforts, he suggested any fundamental change on immigration was doomed from the start because Germany - which was regarded as generally being supportive of Mr Cameron - was opposed to anything which impinged in any way on rules on freedom of movement within the EU.

'Dropped'

GERMANY EU

He suggested that Mr Cameron dropped calls for an emergency brake on all EU migration from a speech he gave in November 2014 - setting out in broad details his reform demands - amid German opposition.
"I saw the draft. I know that right up until the midnight hour, there was a strong line in there about restricting the flow of migrants from the European Union - an emergency break on overall migration.
"That was dropped, literally the night before. And it was dropped because the Germans said if that is in the speech, we will have to attack it.
"The whole thing was shown to them. The Germans said from the outset, you are not getting border control. Full stop."
Mr Cameron told MPs last week that his renegotiation package - which included limits on access to tax credits and child benefits for new EU migrants, an opt-out for the UK from ever-closer union and safeguards for countries outside the eurozone - was substantial and an "additional reason" to stay in the EU but should not be taken in isolation when weighing up the broader benefits of EU membership.
But Mr Duncan Smith said the limits on in-work benefits would be "very complex" to implement and their impact would be limited as most EU migrants coming to the UK were doing so to find work not to claim benefits.
Responding to Mr Duncan Smith's claims, No 10 told the Sun: "The prime minister made clear at the time that the government had looked at an emergency brake but he decided it was not the most effective way forward.
"That is why he decided to impose restrictions on benefits instead to end the something for nothing culture."

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