He also said he would then develop a “Bratislava Roadmap” to show a way out of the doldrums.
Advertisement
“We know that many within Westminster have no appetite whatsoever for leaving the EU”.
Years of economic and financial crisis have pushed up unemployment in many member states, while a spate of attacks by Islamist militants and a record influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa have unsettled voters, who are turning increasingly to populist, anti-EU parties. “We have to show with out actions that we can get better”, Merkel said at the summit.
French President Francois Hollande said “what we must remember from Bratislava is this: Europe can move forward, Europe must move forward, as soon as it has clear priorities”.
But he admitted Britain’s exit was a “sad moment” for Europe.
“We want to have very good, very close relation with the UK”, Mr Juncker told a news conference, but Europe was “sticking its position”, he said, adding: “I can not see any possibility of compromising on that issue”.
Millions of Europeans don’t feel safe at the moment, European Council President Donald Tusk said after the informal EU summit here on Friday.
“I’m absolutely sure we will achieve our goal which is for close as possible relations between the Uk and the EU. we will be able for sure to protect our interest as a European community”.
The Leaders of the European Union gathered on Friday in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava to discuss the critical juncture of the weakened Union beleaguered by challenges of mass migration chaos, security, defense, and economy.
The leaders, who were greeted by soldiers in bright blue uniforms and ceremonial plumes, will hold talks at the towering castle before having lunch during a river cruise on the Danube.
In a sign of her waning power, she has failed to convince eastern European countries Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and summit host Slovakia to accept refugee quotas.
However, a Downing Street source said on Saturday that the prime minister did not specifically mention January or February at the meeting and that Tusk’s comments were an “interpretation” of their conversation.
The EU leaders will not formally discuss Brexit negotiations, with the rest of Europe impatiently waiting for frozen-out British Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger the two-year divorce process.
Merkel said the bloc simply had to improve but her influence as leader of the EU’s biggest economy has been undermined by her unpopular decision to open Germany’s doors a year ago to almost a million refugees.
Proposals for what Germany has called an EU “defence union” include the creation of an EU military headquarters, with medical aid and logistics capabilities, that would command EU crisis missions.
Advertisement
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the member states agreed to award 108 million euros ($121 million) in emergency funding to Bulgaria for border management at one of the most porous borders with Turkey. Now, many European Union leaders as a response, have restated their intention that Britain will not be allowed to participate in the bloc’s single market if this restriction on the free movement of workers is imposed by the UK.
