Tusk said he understood why Britain needs time to prepare, suggesting Prime Minister Theresa May could go for January or February, but the European Union was ready and could even start the talks “tomorrow”.
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All the European Union leaders insisted there will be no formal Brexit talks until Britain triggers the two-year divorce process and says what it wants.
A Downing Street source said Mrs May did not specifically mention January or February at the meeting and that Mr Tusk’s comments were an “interpretation” of their conversation.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is hosting the summit, said all wanted unity but a “very honest” exchange of views was needed to make that possible.
May has signalled several times over the last three months that Article 50 will not be triggered until at least January 2017 but many mused that May would maybe opt to not pull the trigger until a new general election was called or that she may give into gaining parliament approval for a Brexit – something she has said she would not do.
Formal negotiations over the withdrawal can not begin until Britain triggers Article 50 of what is known as the Lisbon Treaty, the formal mechanism for leaving the Union of 28 nations.
“Well it was absolutely inevitable that there were going to those on the “leave” side of the debate who would say that any government is not going to go hard enough and fast enough and would set up a group to do that”, she told ITV’s Peston on Sunday programme.
European Union member states will further bring down the number of irregular migrants and ensure full control of the bloc’s external borders.
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.
Sir Michael told The Times that he was “concerned about unnecessarily duplicating what we already have in Nato”.
In Bratislava, Juncker insisted Britain can not get access to the European single market without accepting the free movement of workers.
“The creation of a European army will only encourage isolationists in the United States to argue that Europe should be responsible for its own defence”.
“At a time when few of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries can meet the minimum requirement of 2% of GDP defence expenditure, parallel headquarters and staff make no sense whatsoever”. “We won’t continue as we have until now”, said Tusk.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Mr Fico said Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia would be uncompromising in negotiations.
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“I think Britain knows this is an issue for us where there’s no room for compromise”, Fico added, reiterating that he was opposed to any “cherry-picking” in negotiations.
