On the eve of an EU summit in Bratislava on Friday, European Council President Donald Tusk said that he and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker were like “one fist” and that was “no problem” between them – despite the two leaders offering diverging views of whether there should be, in Juncker’s view, “more Europe” and “more unity” or, as Tusk said, an honest look at the direction the EU is taking and the danger of alienating its citizens further.
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United Kingdom exit negotiations are expected to start in early 2017 and to last at least two years, with the United Kingdom retaining its full rights in the EU Council during that period.
Fico said Saturday that the V4 countries will be “uncompromising” in the deal, “unless we feel a guarantee that these people [living and working in Britain] are equal, we will veto any agreement between the European Union and Britain”.
A series of meetings were held in Bratislava as the European Union gets to grip with the reality that discussions with Britain are going to happen in the near future, most likely at the beginning of 2017.
“We have always been concerned about unnecessarily duplicating what we already have in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation”.
He also warned the United Kingdom against “cherry picking” by trying to maintain the advantages of European Union membership such as access to its single market for trade and avoiding the downsides such as accepting the free movement of labor.
The conundrum has become central to the Brexit debate and has caused friction within the government as ministers weigh up how to maintain the benefits of the trading bloc while regaining full control of the UK’s borders – a goal deemed by May as essential to properly implement the referendum result.
The EU’s eastern members have been at odds with older members, mainly Germany, over taking in a share of more than one million migrants who previous year fled war and poverty in Middle Eastern and African countries to come to Europe.
Mr Juncker said: “There is a clear interlink as we made clear at the very beginning between the access to the internal market and the basic principles of the internal market – namely the free movement of workers and we are sticking to that position”.
“So I can not see any possibility of compromising on that very issue”.
This was the signature policy announced by the new British prime minister, Theresa May, when she unexpectedly walked into Downing Street last July.
However, despite those pledges to arrive at a plan to move forward, disagreements continued over how to handle the influx of refugees into Europe.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande pledged at an European Union summit in Bratislava Friday to work together to make a “success” of the bloc after Brexit. “There are more advantages than disadvantages in being a member state and we can achieve that”.
The next informal meeting is already scheduled for early 2017 in Valletta, the capital city of Malta, which is expected to take over the European Council’s rotating presidency from Slovakia.
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For instance, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was quoted by the Financial Times as, “I will be perfectly frank”.
