The wording put to voters in the UK referendum on EU membership will ask Britons to vote "yes" to remain in the union or "no" to leave, sources say.

The precise question proposed by the British government will be published in the EU Referendum Bill within 24 hours.

The question is expected to be similar to the UK Electoral Commission's suggested modification to then-backbencher James Wharton's private member's bill.

That question stated: "Should the United Kingdom remain in the European Union?"

The Commission was concerned that too few potential voters were aware that Britain was already a member of the EU.

The question will be the subject of considerable debate and possible amendment in Parliament there.

The EU Referendum Bill is at the centre of Queen Elizabeth II's speech today.

Other bills on immigration, apprenticeships, Scotland, city devolution, and housing will be announced by the Queen.

But the EU referendum towers above everything else.

It is claimed European officials are starting to make life difficult for British Prime Minister David Cameron's strategy on European reform.

The window is closing on the "full-on" EU treaty change wanted and expected by Mr Cameron and his backbenchers.

Opposition to treaty change

Germany had been the big hope for the UK's renegotiation.

Berlin had wanted to get the Eurozone fiscal compact written into the EU treaty at some point, to give watertight restrictions on borrowing within the single currency zone.

This realignment would have provided the only real opportunity for Britain to change its legal relationship within the European Union.

France is opposed to treaty change however, and what has emerged in the past few months is that as many as 18 of the EU's 28 member states are also not in favour.

Domestic politics is the main reason: the ratification of a treaty change would be a tough ask against a backdrop of the rise of populist far-right and far-left parties.

The Le Monde newspaper's leak of the Franco-German position paper, confirmed by its recipient - Jean-Claude Juncker's spokesman - is confirmation that Germany is not going to give a treaty change opportunity for Mr Cameron to take.

The Franco-German paper refers to "four areas of action, which should be developed in the framework of the current treaties in the coming years".

Responding to the story, Mr Cameron's spokesman said there has been "no change whatsoever (on treaty change)...widely known that Eurozone countries have been discussing for some time a range of issues".

Senior Conservative backbenchers again stressed the importance of achieving formal treaty change.

Mr Cameron's more immediate challenge following the Franco-German position paper will be to get his reform proposals on the agenda for June's European Leaders Summit in Brussels.