Prime Minister David Cameron is to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker later to discuss the terms of a potential new UK deal.
Mr Cameron will host Mr Juncker at his official countryside residence Chequers at the start of a week of efforts to renegotiate Britain's EU membership.
The PM has promised to hold an "in-out" referendum by the end of 2017.
A government source said the meeting would be a chance for Mr Cameron to make the case for renegotiation.
Earlier, No 10 confirmed UK-based citizens from most EU countries will not get a vote. The eligibility rules will be broadly the same as for a general election, rather than for local or European polls.
Irish citizens in the UK will be eligible, while residents from two other EU nations - Malta and Cyprus - also qualify, along with others from the Commonwealth.
But the SNP's Humza Yousaf said excluding other EU citizens risked entering "into the rhetoric of division".
Referendum Bill
During their meeting, Mr Cameron and Mr Juncker are expected to focus on some of the issues the UK is trying to change in Europe, including freedom of movement and benefits citizens can claim when they move to another country.
The government source said: "It is an opportunity for the PM to underline why he is doing this and the views of Britain about the EU, the case for renegotiation and not sticking with the status quo."
However, UKIP MP Douglas Carswell said the prime minister's promised renegotiation would be "more or less worthless".
He added: "We now know he's not seeking treaty change and none of the new deal that he is looking for will apply specifically to Britain... none of it is going to fundamentally change our relationship with Europe."
Over the coming days, Mr Cameron will also travel to France, Germany, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands.
And on Thursday, legislation on the voting eligibility for the referendum will be introduced to Parliament via the EU Referendum Bill.
'Big decision'
The Bill will make clear the franchise will follow broadly the same rules as the general election:
- British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens over 18 who are resident in the UK will be eligible to vote
- So too will UK nationals who have lived overseas for less than 15 years
- The franchise will not include 16 and 17-year-olds, unlike the Scottish independence referendum
- Members of the House of Lords and Commonwealth citizens in Gibraltar will also be allowed to vote, although they cannot participate in general elections
- In total, around 45.3 million people will be able to take part
A No 10 source said about the franchise: "This is a big decision for our country, one that is about the future of the United Kingdom. That's why we think it's important that it is British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens that are the ones who get to decide."
Eurosceptics have previously claimed that as many as 1.5 million people from other EU countries could have been allowed to vote in the referendum, if it had taken place under the rules for local government elections.
EU referendum in focus
David Cameron is ready to start renegotiating the terms of Britain's EU membership ahead of a referendum. Here is some further reading on what it all means:
Former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox, a Eurosceptic, said allowing EU citizens to vote in the referendum "would have been an unacceptable dilution of the voice of the British people".
UKIP leader Nigel Farage said the plans were "sensible and reasonable".
However, the SNP's Mr Yousaf, the party's Europe minister in the Scottish Parliament, urged the government to reconsider.
He told BBC News: "Excluding EU citizens, many of whom live here for a number of years, pay their taxes, their children attend local schools, to disenfranchise them over their own future in this vote is illogical, is utterly perverse and creates a democratic deficit."
He added: "We don't want to enter into the rhetoric of division and I think that's exactly what this franchise aims to do."
'Matter of principle'
The party's Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, also called for the voting age to be lowered for the referendum.
He said: "Young people are our future. It is their UK - and their Europe - so they must have their say."
Labour's shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said his party would try to amend the referendum bill to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote.
"It's a matter of principle," he said. "If a person aged 16 to 17 is old enough to work and pay taxes - and they are - to marry, to join the armed forces, why should they not be allowed to participate in our democracy?"
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