Merkel Condemns Cameron’s Plans to Limit Immigration From Other EU Countries: Reports

MOSCOW – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly condemned Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to establish limits on immigration from other European Union (EU) states and warned to quit efforts to keep Britain in the EU, German weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported.

Merkel would abandon her efforts to keep Britain in the EU if Cameron insists on restricting the number of immigrants to the UK from other EU countries, the magazine reported Sunday citing its sources at the chancellor’s office and foreign ministry.

Ahead of May 2015 national election, Cameron’s Conservative party has announced it could cap immigration from other EU countries in case it wins. Immigration issues have become of major importance in the election campaign of the Conservative party in the recent years. Moreover, the most eurosceptic party in Britain UK Independence Party (UKIP) that advocates the strictest approach to the immigration issues has gained ground both domestically and in the European Parliament after the May elections.

German chancellor and the European Commission have said such measures would violate the freedom of movement of the EU citizens, which is one of the basic EU principles.

Cameron has claimed he would hold a referendum on the British membership in theEuropean Union in 2017 in case he wins the May national election.