A free EU

In Britain, the debate over a possible exit from the European Union, mixed with questions about immigration, is becoming heated. The Guardian said on Monday (03.11.2014) that comments supposedly made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel about Britain's possible exit from the EU have sparked great interest among the paper's readers.

Reports emerged on Sunday that Merkel was prepared to accept a UK exit should the government decide to restrict the immigration of European citizens. The story broke in Britain after Germany's Der Spiegel reported that members of the German government assumed that the UK would have to leave the EU if it infringed on the bloc's guaranteed freedom of movement. Der Spiegel's report cited anonymous government sources who claimed to have heard what was said between Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron during the last EU summit.

Nothing new from Berlin

Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert backpedaled in Berlin on Monday and tried to rectify the content of the Spiegel report: "The German government wants Great Britain to continue to be an active and committed member of the European Union," he told reporters.

But freedom of travel and residence of EU citizens is non-negotiable. The chancellor herself has said so multiple times - at her press conference during the EU summit on October 24, for example. But, she added then, "that doesn't mean there aren't various problems [with it]."

Merkel was referring to the possible misuse of welfare benefits in other EU countries. But EU citizens don't have a right to social benefits if they aren't working and earning money in the country in which they are living. Germany has filed a case with the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to assert this, and Merkel is expecting to receive a verdict from the ECJ in November. She also spoke to Cameron about at the last EU summit. "I spoke today with David Cameron and we are both anxious to receive the verdict and we will interpret it together," she said.

She and Cameron agreed that misuse of the social benefits system must be stopped, but the principle of freedom of movement, work and residency must not be touched.

No immigration quotas?

This message has reached London. The prime minister, according to a report in the Sunday Times, only wants to deport EU citizens from the UK if they can't support themselves up to three months after entry. This is in line with EU law. Cameron has abandoned plans to restrict immigration, or introduce quotas, to lesser qualified EU citizens.

Jose Barroso, who left office as EU Commission president on Friday, told the BBC shortly after the summit that immigration quotas for EU citizens would not be an option, as far as the Commission was concerned. "Any kind of arbitrary cap seems to me to be not in conformity with European laws," he said. "Because for us it's very important, the principle of non-discrimination. The freedom of movement is a very important principle in the internal market: movement of goods, of capital, of services and of people."

Five percent immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria

Barroso added that British citizens also benefitted from EU freedoms - the British government could, for example, argue for the right of British citizens to travel unrestricted between Gibraltar and Spain.

According to national statistics, around 560,000 people immigrated to the UK between April 2013 and March 2014. Around five percent of those - or 28,000 - were from the poorer EU countries Romania and Bulgaria. The statistics agency also found an increase in immigration from the other 25 EU member states as well. According to the British NGO Migration Watch, 83,000 people in total - Brits and non-Brits - migrated from Britain to other EU states.

Cameron upset with EU

Cameron has been trying to win over euroskeptic voters in his country for a while. The anti-Europe United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) outperformed Cameron's Conservatives in the last European elections in May, and the prime minister promised to bring powers back from Brussels to London and restrict immigration. "And you know, this organization has got to understand, if it behaves in this way, it shouldn't get surprised when it's members say this cannot go on and it's got to change," he said at a press conference in Brussels. This time, though, he was not talkin about immigration, but a large sum of money - two billion euros ($2.5 billion), a retrospective payment Britain is expected to pay soon - other EU countries have been asked to pay extra as well.

Britain is holding a general election in May, after which Cameron wants to negotiate Britian's status with the EU and allow Britons to participate in an in-or-out referendum in 2017. UKIP head Nigel Farage seems pleased. He told ITV that the prime minister had gotten all his promises tangled up. One cannot simply tailor EU law to suit oneself, Farage pointed out. "Either we stay European Union members with total free movement of people or, if we want to get back our border controls, we have to leave the EU," he said.

Out of concern that Britain could end up leaving the union, many northern European leaders, including Germany, are willing to compromise with Britain, the UKIP leader said on his party's website.