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EU head ready to help Cameron with 'Mission Impossible'

20 March 2015, 20:07 CET
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(BRUSSELS) - It's not often that wonkish political manoeuvering in Brussels inspires comparisons to a Hollywood action movie.

But European Union president Donald Tusk said Friday he was ready to help British Prime Minister David Cameron achieve a happy ending to his "Mission Impossible" demands to change the bloc's treaties.

Tusk, a former Polish premier who heads the European Council, referred to the Tom Cruise movie in a newspaper interview earlier this month discussing Cameron's pledge for a new deal in Europe.

"I used the term that treaty change is something like Mission Impossible," Tusk told a press conference Friday after a EU summit. "But in fact this is not just a joke, after this movie with Tom Cruise, Mission Impossible means (something) very different: a mission but with happy end."

Tusk said that if Conservative party leader Cameron wins re-election in May he was ready to discuss the British premier's plans, which include a referendum on EU membership by 2017.

"I want to help find a solution that addresses the United Kingdom's concerns but of course with respecting the fundamental values of the European Union," Tusk said.

If Cameron loses to his more pro-EU Labour rival Ed Miliband in May this will be his last European summit.

But if he wins, Britain's troubled relationship with Brussels will become a wider problem for the 28-nation bloc as Cameron pushes for reforms such as tighter controls on immigration.

Cameron compared himself to diminutive star Cruise when asked how he viewed his prospects of success.

"I know that Donald will be helpful as the president of the council in bringing forward what's necessary for the reform of the European Union," the British premier said.

"If you watch any of these movies, you find that Tom Cruise normally prevails. He's a little bit smaller than me, but I hope to be just as effective -- if I win I will have a mandate for change in Europe."

Cameron is under pressure to deliver from the right flank of his Conservative party -- which is roughly neck-and-neck with Labour in opinion polls -- and from the anti-EU, anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) led by Nigel Farage.


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