Cameron warns EU reform proposals 'not yet strong enough'

(LONDON) - Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday said mooted EU reform proposals in response to Britain's demands were "not yet strong enough", ahead of a meeting with the European Commission's president.

"I'm encouraged that ideas are coming forward that have some force but we're not there yet. They are not yet strong enough," Cameron told BBC radio before his planned talks in Brussels with Jean-Claude Juncker.

"It's encouraging that people like the European Commission are coming forward with new ideas but there's still a long way to go before we see something that we can actually agree.

"There's going to be a lot of hard negotiation, a lot of hard talking but it is encouraging that what I was previously told was impossible is now looking like it is possible," he said.

"I won't agree to something unless it has the force and the weight that we need to solve the problems that we have. I'm prepared to be patient," he added.

The talks with Juncker are set to focus on an emergency "migration brake" that would meet Cameron's controversial key demand -- a four-year wait before workers from other European Union countries in Britain can claim welfare payments.

If Cameron gets a deal at a summit next month he is then expected to hold an in-or-out referendum in June on Britain's four-decade-old membership of the EU, with his own position in the balance.

Cameron has set out four key areas for a deal: EU worker benefits, safeguards against more political integration in the EU, protection of countries that do not use the euro currency -- a key issue for the City of London financial district -- and the boosting of economic competitiveness.

While officials in Brussels say most are achievable, the major sticking point has been Cameron's insistence that EU workers employed in Britain must wait four years before claiming welfare payments such as tax credits or housing benefits.

A "migration brake" that would allow Britain or any other country to limit benefits to EU workers, if it can show its welfare system is under strain, is one of the options that the EU is examining, diplomatic sources have told AFP.