British Prime Minister David Cameron's plan to reshape his country's ties with the European Union met resistance today when the president of the European Parliament told him he thought part of his strategy had no chance of succeeding.

Cameron, re-elected last month, has pledged to complete his renegotiation, and then hold an in-out EU membership vote before the end of 2017. He says he is confident of securing concessions and wants Britain to remain in a reformed EU.

Others aren't so sure.

At home, Cameron has weathered a parliamentary rebellion from his own Eurosceptic lawmakers over what they see as attempts to rig the process in favour of vote to stay in the bloc. And he risks suffering another later on Thursday during a debate enabling the referendum to take place.

Abroad, his efforts to win over EU leaders have also drawn a mixed response. On Thursday, Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, gave Cameron's ideas a cool reaction during talks in London.

"I see no chance of changing the ever closer union, but I don't even know if he wants to change it," Schulz, a German Social Democrat, said in an interview with the Guardian newspaper before meeting Cameron.

Cameron wants to secure a British opt-out from "ever closer union", an aspiration set out in the bloc's founding treaties, something that would require those treaties to be re-opened.

"Dialogue is necessary. Solutions are always coming via dialogue and at the end via compromise," Schulz told reporters after meeting Cameron. "There were some controversial items."

Schulz would wait to see Cameron's official proposals and then see if joint solutions could be found, a spokesman for the parliament chief told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for Cameron described the Schulz meeting as good but said much more work would be needed.

"There will be lots of different views expressed during this renegotiation," she said.

Cameron has touted his ideas in meetings with over 20 EU counterparts so far and is due to formally present his reform plans - which include measures to curb EU migrants' access to Britain's welfare system - to EU leaders in Brussels next week.

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