Britain concludes 'special status' agreement with EU

British Prime Minister David Cameron has reached an agreement with his European partners to give the UK ‘special status in the EU,’ after hours of painstaking negotiations in Brussels, .

Among the package negotiated by the UK, Cameron received a commitment to change the EU's governing treaties to recognise that Britain is not bound to any political union and include safeguards against financial regulation being imposed on the City of London by the euro zone.

Cameron hailed the success over key demands “Britain will be permanently out of ever closer union, never part of a European super state,” he told a news conference.

“There will be tough new restrictions on access to our welfare system for EU migrants, no more ‘something for nothing’. Britain will never join the euro and we have secured vital protections for our economy and a full say over the rules of the free trade single market while remaining outside the euro.”

The settlement won unanimous support at the end of the two-day summit, announced European Council President Donald Tusk.

Britain is already the EU’s most detached member, having opted out of joining the euro single currency, the Schengen zone of passport-free travel and many areas of police and judicial cooperation.

No country has ever voted to leave the Union and many leaders said they felt they were at an historic turning point for European integration.

However eurosceptics in the UK have accused Cameron of watering down his original demands.

A number of key figures in his own Conservative party are expected to campaign for Brexit – the departure of Britain from the 28-nation bloc – when the UK votes in a referendum on the issue, expected to be held in June.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Britain’s anti-EU UK Independence Party, tweeted his rejection of the agreement.