The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, promised to help the British Prime Minister David Cameron in the negotiations on the conditions for the UK to remain a member of the EU.
However, Tusk warned that Cameron's demand to reach a new deal between Great Britain and Europe by revising the EU agreement is practically "mission impossible".
"A consensus of 28 member states, in the European Parliament, in 28 national parliaments is needed in the ratification process. It is an understatement to say that it is Pandora's box," Tusk said in an interview with "The Guardian" and five other European dailies.
"I am ready to help Cameron. I have no doubt that we have to help within a limited and reasonable framework. We have to help David Cameron because he is clearly pro-European," said a key EU politician who will lead the negotiations, adding that he is "sceptical when it comes to change agreement".
If re-elected in May's general election, Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's membership of the Union, particularly on tougher controls on migration, and to hold a referendum on membership by 2017.
"The Guardian" states that Cameron's attacks on the free labor market within the EU and his review of migration from EU countries, especially from Eastern Europe, make the British dilemma difficult for Tusk, the former prime minister of Poland, the country with the most European immigrants to Great Britain.
The British newspaper states that Cameron was "privately told" that the Europeans do not intend to reconsider the Lisbon Treaty and that he most likely will not have the support of the most powerful figure in the EU - German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"First of all, we need more specific details about the British demands. When we have more information about the details, about the legal problems, we will decide whether a debate on changes to the agreement is necessary at all," Tusk said.
Tusk's statement represents the first public comment on the "British issue" since he took over the position of chairman of the European Council in December last year.
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