* Leak of draft deal reveals failure to agree reform of Lisbon treaty * ‘War room of lawyers’ gathering in Brussels * Jucker: ‘we have to sort out a certain number of questions’ * EU president Donald Tusk says ‘no guarantee’ of deal 2.00pm GMT “Cameron’s pettiness demeans and embarrasses Britain,” writes Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee. Cameron enters the “in” campaign having spent his entire decade as party leader undermining support for it. He deserves to lose, but we have to hope to God he doesn’t. Under him, Britain has had next to nothing constructive to contribute to the EU’s troubles, riven and immobilised over the migration crisis, and by the euro’s weakness to which austerity was the wrong answer ... Cameron has even undermined the great reasons for the EU’s existence. Securing democratic freedom was its founding postwar purpose, which explains the hasty eastward enlargement when the Berlin Wall fell. Former communist countries, and Greece, Spain and Portugal, were all embraced, regardless of economic cost. Because the EU is a beacon of decency, the world’s oppressed travel here to this most stable, well-governed zone. But in begging for tiny concessions on benefits, Cameron has grovelled to authoritarian governments in Poland and Hungary who already test the margins of human rights acceptability. His promise of a British bill of human rights would let Hungarians and Poles claim the right to pick and choose their own too. 1.47pm GMT Gianni Pittella, the president of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second largest political group in the European Parliament, says his bloc will support Britain remaining in the EU but not at the cost of sacrificing its values. Al via il prevertice socialista: sosterremo la permanenza del Regno Unito in UE ma senza sacrificare i nostri valori pic.twitter.com/4WMDWqqUEp Continue reading...
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