BRUSSELS: EU president Donald Tusk unveiled proposals to keep Britain in the 28-nation club on Tuesday, firing the starting gun for two weeks of tense negotiations to reach a deal at a summit later this month.
The proposals include a four-year "emergency brake" on welfare payments for EU migrant workers, protection for countries that do not use the euro and a "red card" system giving national parliaments more power.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Tusk's plans showed "real progress" and made it likely that he would campaign to stay in the European Union in a referendum expected in June.
But eurosceptics in Britain dismissed the proposals as worthless, and they could be a hard sell ahead of the February 18-19 summit for some EU states, who fear that Cameron is winning too many concessions.
"To be, or not to be together, that is the question which must be answered not only by the British people in a referendum, but also by the other 27 members of the EU in the next two weeks," Tusk said in a letter to EU leaders.
Tusk later warned that a deal was not certain in the pre-summit negotiations, which will begin in earnest on Friday when EU diplomats meet in Brussels.
"It's still a lot of work ahead of us. The stakes are really high," Tusk told the BBC. "Nothing is easy in this case."
US President Barack Obama waded into the debate on Tuesday, calling Cameron to reiterate his support for "a strong United Kingdom in a strong European Union," according to the White House.
Washington has long backed Britain playing a central role in the world's largest economic bloc.
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