“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”, he said. “We are meeting informally and trying to exchange views and prepare for formal decisions”.
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Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has urged the fellow 27 leaders of the European Union to continue working on the potentials offered by the Single Market, which offers member states like Malta access to various important economic and financial sectors. As Juncker said, the country would soon receive the €160 million it has been requesting to secure its borders.
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.
European Union leaders are waiting to hear from May on what she wants and Tusk repeated the mantra that there could be “no negotiations before notification”. “There are more advantages than disadvantages in being a member state and we can achieve that”.
Speaking to The Times, Fallon said the EU’s plan to create a “common military force” is “not going to happen”.
Donald Tusk, president of the European Council and chairman of the EU summit, said divorce negotiations should only be held after London says so, and should be held in the interests of the remaining 27 countries, not Britain.
“Either we move in the direction of disintegration, of dilution, or we work together to inject new momentum, we relaunch the European project”.
However, speaking at a meeting of European Union leaders on Saturday, Fico made clear that May would face an almighty challenge trying to strike this sort of deal.
Brexit was not formally discussed at Friday’s meeting, but the commission’s president, Jean-Claude Juncker, reiterated the bloc’s stance at a press conference, saying he could not see “any possibility of compromising” on the question. But Europe is playing hardball and isn’t willing to budge on its core “free movement of people”. “We have this link between the internal market and the principles of the internal market”, he explained.
Renzi has said he will step down later this year if he loses a referendum on constitutional reform.
Years of economic crisis have pushed up unemployment in many member states, while a spate of attacks by Islamist militants and a record influx of migrants have unsettled voters, who are turning increasingly to populist, anti-EU parties.
It is to note here the formal negotiations could only begin after the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty is triggered.
“The only thing we can do is to respect their will”.
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Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern told CNBC as he arrived at the summit that it was “time to achieve some progress on the real issues (facing Europe) which are migration, security and social welfare and I’m quite optimistic that we’ll have good progress today”, he said.
