“So I can not see any possibility of compromising on that very issue”, he said.
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The Eastern Europeans also oppose compulsory relocation of migrants around the bloc to ease the burden on Greece and Italy, part of more fundamental opposition to power being centralised in Brussels. In contrast to the UK (United Kingdom), we know what we want.
France can take the lead in European defence cooperation, but cannot do it all on its own, French President Francois Hollande said Friday as EU leaders held crunch post-Brexit talks.
“If we talk about nothing and stonewall.it’s useless for us to be here”, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel added.
With British Prime Minister Theresa May absent, the other 27 leaders will gather on Friday to try and agree a diagnosis of why people across the bloc are increasingly voting for eurosceptic parties and on ways to regain trust in the EU.
Despite the promise of one vision, cracks in the union are evident everywhere.
He insisted the EU’s four key pillars – the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour – had to remain at the core of the European mission, although abuse by welfare shoppers who crossed borders to maximise their social benefit income had to be curbed.
Extremist attacks in Paris, Brussels and Germany combined with the lack of intelligence-sharing between member countries have undermined confidence that the European Union can provide a solution and provided fodder for the far-right.
In Bratislava, Mr Juncker insisted Britain can not get access to the European single market without accepting the free movement of workers.
Merkel said the meeting in Bratislava must demonstrate that the European Union was capable of “reacting together to the weaknesses” of the bloc.
“During my visit to London and talks with Theresa May it was for both of us absolutely clear that we have to wait for this formal triggering of article 50 and Theresa May was vey open and honest with me and declared it is nearly impossible to trigger article 50 this year but it’s quite likely they will be ready maybe in January, maybe in February next year”.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker this week proposed an EU 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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The British referendum sparked European Union debates on development versus reduction of centralised administration, while the migration crisis and domestic security in the wake of the wave of violence of Islamic extremists are also key issues at the meeting.
