Cameron’s migration mess

Camino Mortera-Martinez of the Centre for European Reform believes it is fanciful to think that [treaty change] is possible. The other member states and MEPs would ask the question, ‘why should the EU create a new law when the UK can fix the perceived problem on its own?’. “Free movement has never been an unconditional right. EU law offers a number of tools to control intra-EU migration and prevent abuse of welfare systems,” she says...

Mortera-Martinez says the UK should “stop blaming Brussels for problems which can and should be solved at national level”. She argues that the UK has failed to take basic steps to counter benefits tourism, in place in almost all other member states, such as establishing a compulsory register for EU citizens which could be used to check that EU migrants fulfil the necessary conditions to remain in the country for more than three months.