Spain Hopes UK Stays in European Union - Prime Minister

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that he does not want to imagine the UK leaving the EU.

MADRID (Sputnik) – Spain hopes the United Kingdom will remain a member of the European Union, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said Friday.

"Spain wants the United Kingdom to stay in the EU. I do not want to imagine the UK leaving the EU," Rajoy said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is in the middle of an EU membership renegotiation campaign, with a nationwide referendum on the issue due to be held before the end of 2017.

Speaking at a joint press conference following a meeting with Cameron, Rajoy expressed hope that the upcoming plebiscite would produce positive results for the European Union.

"It must be based on a compromise between the UK and the EU, taking into account the opinion of Britons," he stressed.

In a joint editorial published in the Spanish economic daily Expansion, Rajoy and Cameron called for "ambitious structural reforms" to promote growth, employment and innovation in the European Union.

Before holding the vote in 2017, Cameron is seeking to revise the terms of Britain’s membership of the bloc, including greater autonomy in defining its national immigration policy.