“Europe can, must move forward as long as it has clear priorities: protection, security, prosperity and the future of the youth”, said French president Francois Hollande in a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But EU countries are deeply divided over how to bolster growth and respond to the influx of migrants. “We have to show with out actions that we can get better”, Merkel said at the summit.
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He revealed Theresa May had led him to expect, at their meeting last week in London, that this would “quite likely” be in January or February next year.
EU leaders, meeting without their British counterpart on Friday, said they had come up with a “road map” of strategies for rebuilding public trust in the European Union after the shock of Britain’s vote to leave.
Merkel said the bloc had to improve “in the domain of security, internal and external security, the fight against terrorism, the cooperation in the field of defence”.
Mr Tusk wants to restore European Union stability and credibility with the bloc in the face of a migrant crisis and issues with the euro currency. Leaders of the European countries are meeting for the first time after the Brexit vote.
The alliance, whose predecessor was formed 60 years ago, is facing unprecedented division over how to absorb more than 1 million migrants from the Middle East Africa and Asia who have traveled to Europe to escape war and poverty back home. Northern nations view the south as a eurozone liability.
President of the European Council Donald Tusk, left, arrives for an EU summit at Bratislava Castle in Bratislava on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. So on Friday they will stick to subjects they agree on and those they feel are relevant to voters’ concerns: migration, security and globalisation. “Britain has chose to leave and there are questions about the future of Europe”, he said.
He urged them to take a “sober and brutally honest” look at the bloc’s problems.
Mujtaba Rahman of political risk consultancy Eurasia said the summit may only end up advertising “the scarcity of common ground” among the EU-27 and the weakness of its most important leaders Merkel, Hollande and Italy’s Matteo Renzi.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said “we all want to show unity and that we want to continue with this project”.
In a reflection of the strong emphasis during the summit on the refugee crisis and defence and security matters, the communiqué said that the European Union was needed “not only to guarantee peace and democracy but also the security of our people”.
Mr Fico has said Slovakia will not accept “one single Muslim migrant” and has mounted a legal challenge to the scheme.
Numerous measures had been flagged in European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s key-note speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday.
Britain has always opposed a joint EU military for fear it would overlap with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, but the remaining members hope that boosting defence cooperation will give the union something to rally around.
Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, the migrant crisis and deadly Islamic State attacks in France and Belgium have eroded confidence that the European Union can protect its citizens.
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In the end, the leaders committed to have a clear roadmap of the way ahead and some practical results when they meet in late March to mark the 60th anniversary of the European Union founding Treaty of Rome in the Italian capital.
