The PM will never deliver reform if he can’t stand firm on EU benefits

SIR – If David Cameron abandons plans to delay benefit payments to EU migrants (report, December 13), then his EU reform negotiations – already trivial – will become meaningless.

Having mistakenly voted to stay in the Common Market in the Seventies, I suspect I will not be alone when I vote to leave this time.

Don Bailey

Frodsham, Cheshire

SIR – In order that Britain is not seen to be discriminating against EU migrants, the Government should pay those who have moved here the same benefits they would have received in their home country. This would remove the “pull factor” of higher benefits.

Should other EU countries want Britain to pay EU migrants more, they would first have to increase the benefits they pay to their own citizens.

Ian Wallace

Whitley Bay, Northumberland

SIR – Would it be contrary to EU regulations for EU migrants to be paid benefits by their “parent” nation as opposed to the “host” nation, at least until such time as they had contributed sufficient taxes?

Robin Philip

Luckington, Wiltshire

SIR – Of course the question of benefits is not negotiable. It is the keystone of the European project – common citizenship in a Europe ruled from the centre, with nation states reduced to semi-autonomous regions.

We have a choice: reclaim our independence (which may have a price attached) or become part of a “United States of Europe” with a constitution yet to be devised and uncertain economic prospects.

Charles D B Pugh

London SW10

SIR – Last week you reported that the 27 other EU countries are all against Mr Cameron’s proposal to delay inwork benefits for EU migrants.

That was no surprise, since those countries will be relieved of many

SIR – When the EU was formed, the idea of free movement was predicated on the notion of balance. It was assumed that a nation’s levels of immigration would be roughly equal to its levels of emigration.

Brussels did not forsee – or chose to ignore – that with the accession of eastern European countries into the EU, the movement from east to west would greatly exceed the movement in the opposite direction. As a result, with the continuation of free movement and no border control, there is now a significant imbalance.

How many British citizens want to move to Romania or Bulgaria? This imbalance is at the heart of the question of movement within the EU, and the number of citizens who can be admitted to countries such as Britain.

Richard Denman

Bournemouth, Dorset