UK Refugee Policy Risks PM Losing EU Reform Battle With Brussels

Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann has threatened to block Britain's negotiation package unless David Cameron showed "solidarity" with other EU member states and agreed to accept more asylum seekers into the UK. Faymann told Austrian television:

"When I think of the British, who have their own catalogue of demands, why should we do anything for them? Because, you have to say, solidarity is not a one-way street."

Politicians in Berlin are also suggesting that Britain is in danger of ruining relations with Germany, if Cameron continues to ignore Chancellor Angela Merkel's call for countries to sign up to a quota system to resettle asylum seekers.

German newspaper Bild has described Cameron as one of the "slackers of Europe" over his response to the refugee crisis.

A photograph of David Cameron appeared under the headline:

"The slackers of Europe — they take far fewer refugees than they could… Great Britain — it has so far taken 114 refugees for every one million residents, one third of the EU average. For comparison, Germany has taken 905 per million population and Hungary, 3,322."

As part of his election manifesto, David Cameron pledged to reform Britain's relationship with the EU and scale back Brussels' influence on the UK, but with relations souring between Germany and Britain over Cameron's response to the refugee crisis, those negotiations are set to become tougher.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron is insisting that the European migration crisis will not be solved simply by Britain taking in more refugees. "We have taken a number of genuine asylum seekers from Syrian refugee camps and we keep that under review, but we think the most important thing is to try to bring peace and stability to that part of the world," Cameron said during a visit in Northamptonshire.

"We are taking action right across the board, helping countries from which these people are coming, stabilizing them and trying to make sure there are worthwhile jobs and stronger economies there".

'Humanitarian Catastrophe'

While Germany and many other European countries view the migrant crisis as the most important issue facing the EU, Britain's government remains more preoccupied with the EU referendum and renegotiation of the UK's relationship with Brussels.

Stephen Mayer, spokesman for Angela Merkel's conservative MPs told The Times: "I have always had sympathy and understanding for the British role in the EU and the demands for renegotiation.

"But we are now in such a huge humanitarian catastrophe, I do not have any sympathy or understanding for one-country-orientated positions."