Cameron's EU Reforms Are 'Not Realistic'

A key ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cast doubt on the Prime Minister's aim of securing EU treaty change.

David Cameron completed a whistlestop tour of the continent last week to rally support for reform ahead of a UK referendum on EU membership, which will take place by 2017.

After talks in Berlin, Ms Merkel encouraged Number 10 by saying it could not be said "that treaty change is a total impossibility".

But Norbert Rottgen, chair of the Bundestag foreign affairs council, told Sky News that "within the course of two years... this is simply not realistic".

He added that he could not see "the atmosphere" for treaty change of any type by 2017, citing elections in Poland and France.

Mr Cameron wants stricter immigration controls for EU citizens, and while Dr Rottgen said there was room for "legal creativity", he added that the UK proposals must not threaten the essential substance of EU treaty rights.

"Any proposal which aims at establishing rules of discrimination against citizens of other member states will not work, because it goes to the heart of the EU," he said.

"Everything... below that is possible."

A separate intergovernmental agreement could be one option, Dr Rottgen said, provided it was seen as a reform for the benefit of the whole EU, and related to interpretation of phrases such as "ever closer union".

Such an option was used for Denmark's renegotiation in 1992.

Dr Rottgen, who is in London for an international conference of diplomats, stressed that Germany wants Britain to stay in the EU.

Last month, another senior German politician, the European Parliament President Martin Schulz, also told Sky News that treaty change was unlikely .

After a phone call with the PM, he said he was not sure if Mr Cameron actually wanted those legal changes.