Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said that the European Union wants to reach an agreement with the United Kingdom, but it is not prepared to compromise the banking union or the further integration of monetary union to achieve this goal.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — The European Union will not agree to the further integration of the euro area being jeopardized in order to retain the United Kingdom as a member of the bloc, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said Friday.

On February 18-19, EU leaders are meeting in Brussels to discuss the issue of the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union, among other issues. UK Prime Minister David Cameron has put forward four key proposals he would like to adopted for his country to remain in the bloc, including the removal of the euro's single official EU currency status, which would render the integration of all EU countries into the eurozone formally impossible.

Faymann told reporters as he arrived at the summit that the bloc wants to reach an agreement with the United Kingdom, but it is not prepared to compromise the banking union or the further integration of monetary union to achieve this goal.

Last year, UK Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to hold a referendum on the United Kingdom's future within the European Union by the end of 2017. Ahead of the vote, the British prime minister is seeking to revise the terms of the country's membership of the bloc.

Apart from the European multi-currency status, Cameron has proposed shifting power away from EU authorities back to the UK national legislature, exempting Britain from the EU "superstate" principle, and protecting the British economy by keeping eurozone members away from non-eurozone countries’ affairs.

The eurozone is a monetary union of 19 of the 28 EU member states which have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender. The other nine members of the European Union continue to use their own national currencies. Non-euro area EU states, except for Denmark and the United Kingdom, are obliged to join the union once they meet the criteria to do so.