Merkel said that European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker’s speech before the European Parliament would be the “blueprint’ on which the EU would work over the next few months”.
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“I will not meddle in Britain’s domestic politics”, Juncker told German media group Funke.
European Council president Donald Tusk said the Prime Minister told him during talks at No 10 last week it was “quite likely” she would be ready to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty “maybe in January, maybe in February” 2017.
The announcement was made in Bratislava where 27 European Union leaders discussed the future of the European Union without Britain’s prime minister attending the gathering.
Given Britain’s recent decision to leave the European Union, it would be hard for Fallon to influence the EU’s decision on a joint military force.
European Union leaders revealed a new plan on Friday to regain the trust of European citizens anxious about migration, security and the economy.
In a sign of how European Union leaders remained at odds on how to move forward as a bloc without Britain, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi broke ranks and did not participate in a joint press conference with France and Germany which focused on how united the European Union are.
Meanwhile Mrs Merkel has banned her colleagues from describing the migrant crisis which continues to effect Europe as “chaos”.
The 27 leaders – minus British Prime Minister Theresa May – gathered at Bratislava’s towering castle overlooking the River Danube, determined to respond to the challenges of mass migration, security, globalisation and a stuttering economy. “This is clearly about domestic politics”, one senior official said.
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.
“We have to show with our actions that we can get better”, she said, noting a need for improvements in border security, the unified fight against terrorism and cooperation in defense and in job growth.
The BBC’s Tom Bateman says this is the clearest sign yet of when the two-year withdrawal process may start.
The Bratislava summit was intended as a discussion about the best way forward, following Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.
Leaders of 27 EU member states have convened in Bratislava to have what European Council president Donald Tusk has called a “brutally honest” conversation about the EU’s future. The bloc will now pursue a new principle of “flexible solidarity”, he said, although it is not yet clear what that might mean in practice.
No one said Brexit was going to be easy though.
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But the deeply unpopular Hollande is widely expected to lose power in a presidential election next spring, and speculation is rife in Germany about whether Chancellor Merkel will decide to run for a fourth term at next year’s parliamentary election amid a fall in her popularity and infighting among her conservatives.
