DAVID Cameron has warned that the EU must be "flexible and imaginative enough" to respond to Britain's demands for change as Cabinet colleague Philip Hammond insisted that without reform the UK would leave the 28-member Brussels bloc.
As part of his whistle-stop tour of European capitals, the Prime Minister dined with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, where, before their meal in the Elysee Palace, he told reporters the status quo was "not good enough".
But he expressed confidence that solutions could be found to make Europe more competitive and "address the concerns of the British people" ahead of an in-out referendum on membership.
After Mr Hollande stressed France wanted the UK to remain in the EU and signalled that he was ready to look at "suitable" proposals for change, Mr Cameron said: "My priority is to reform the European Union to make it more competitive and to address the concerns of the British people about our membership.
"The status quo is not good enough. There are changes we can make that will not just benefit Britain but the rest of Europe too."
He accepted that the priority for the French President was to strengthen the eurozone to ensure there was a successful single currency but stressed Britain supported that too.
"We want to help the eurozone work better and we do not want to stand in the way of closer integration. So we have different priorities but we share one objective, which is to find solutions to these problems."
The PM added: "What matters is that the EU and its 28 members are flexible and imaginative enough to respond to these issues and to work together to find answers that will make the EU more successful. That is the challenge of our times and I believe strongly that we can meet it."
Earlier, Mr Cameron discussed his agenda with Dutch premier Mark Rutte in The Hague and today he will visit Warsaw for talks with his Polish counterpart Ewa Kopacz and then travel to Berlin, where he will have a working lunch with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. More visits are planned in the next few weeks before an EU summit at the end of June.
As the Government published its EU Referendum Bill, Downing Street confirmed the question to be put to the British people would be: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?" This means those wanting to stay in the Brussels bloc will form the Yes campaign.
Mr Hammond made clear that Britain was confident its fellow EU member states understood the importance of the need for reform and that they understood that "if these issues are not addressed, the British people will not give their endorsement to the proposition that Britain should remain part of the European Union".
The Foreign Secretary even hinted his party leader might campaign for the UK to leave the EU if he failed to get his way in renegotiating Britain's deal with Brussels.
"Big issues have to be resolved if he's going to be able to recommend to the British people that we should remain in the European Union," he added.
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