The Visegrad group (V4) of Central European countries have together opposed EU efforts to introduce mandatory quotas for migrants and now, Mr Fico said, also have a common interest in protecting citizens’ rights to work in Britain.
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The V4 spoke out following Theresa May’s refusal so far to guarantee the fate of European Union nationals living and working in the United Kingdom in the event of Brexit.
He said: “Our intention is to bring this amount up to €160m as the Bulgarian prime minister is asking for”.
“It’s about the rights of ordinary people and workers, of those living in Europe, and so I can’t see any possibility of compromising on that very issue”.
European Council president Donald Tusk, who chaired the informal EU meeting in the Slovakian capital, added that Brexit negotiations must prioritise the interests of the 27 remaining countries of the bloc and “not the leaving country”.
European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said: “We want to have very good, very close relation with the UK”.
It comes as Mrs May is preparing to negotiate with the EU’s other 27 member states on the terms of Britain’s exit from the Brussels bloc.
Tusk added, “She declared that it’s nearly impossible to trigger Article 50 this year but it’s quite likely that they will be ready maybe in January maybe in February next year”. We will not allow this negotiation to damage our interest.You can not get away from the feeling that such negotiations run the risk of creating second-class citizens in the UK.
During a joint press conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande acknowledged the need to strengthen exterior border controls and support peripheral member-states feeling the brunt of the refugee crisis. “We have to show with our actions that we can get better”, Merkel said as she arrived at the special summit.
Since more than 1 million migrants fled to Europe from war and poverty-stricken countries in Africa and the Middle East previous year, the EU’s eastern members have been at odds with the bloc’s older members, particularly Germany which has received its fair share of criticism and praise for its open-door policy.
European Union leaders decided that the December regular summit should determine a concrete implementation plan on security and defence, and on how to make better use of the options in the treaties to make headway.
Juncker earlier this week proposed an European Union defence headquarters and a common defence force, both ideas that Britain had previously nixed because they might overlap with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
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He said he wanted migration issues to be more clearly addressed in the bloc’s future roadmap, but was happy that border security was more of a priority and that discussion was now underway on flexible solidarity to allow countries to offer what they feel they can to help resolve the migrant crisis.
