Reuters, Brussels :
Britain should get a fair deal in the European Union but cannot impose its agenda on the bloc’s other 27 members, EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said on Monday, weighing in on a sensitive issue in a tight British election race.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that if he wins Thursday’s election, he would hold a referendum on EU membership in 2017 once he has renegotiated EU treaties to wrest back powers from Brussels — notably a right to limit immigration within the 28-nation bloc.
However, it is far from clear that Cameron will be returned to power, with opinion polls suggesting that neither his ruling Conservatives nor the centre-left Labour Party will win enough seats to control parliament on their own.
“I want a fair deal with Britain, but Britain is not in a situation to impose its exclusive agenda to all the other member states of Europe,” European Commission President Juncker told students at the University of Leuven in Belgium.
