David Cameron has been given a fresh warning that compromise will be needed if he is to succeed in his plan to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership.
Following talks in Downing Street, the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said there were "different views" among member states on Britain's proposals but that there were also areas of "common ground".
"Dialogue is necessary. Solutions are always coming via dialogue and at the end via compromise," he said.
"There is a long list of common interests and I think common ground could be found by analysing and discussing content. That is what we did.
"There were some controversial items and it is not surprising that in the European Parliament some views are different than here in London."
Mr Schulz said that among the issues they had discussed had been how they could stop "abuse" of welfare systems while at the same time guaranteeing the fundamental rights of citizens under the EU treaties.
Mr Cameron, who has been touring European capitals to try to build support for his plans ahead of next week's EU summit in Brussels, said there were "difficult issues" that needed to be resolved.
"I think that these discussions have got off to a good start," he said.
"We have got a long way to go in this reform and renegotiation, a lot of difficult issues to discuss, things that I believe fundamentally need to change, but it has been good to start these discussions today."
Mr Cameron will hold further talks in No 10 with Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny, before heading off to Slovenia for talks with prime minister Miro Cerar, with further meetings tomorrow in Slovakia.