He said Britain had always “been concerned about unnecessarily duplicating what we already have in Nato”.
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Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel sought to play down a conflict after his foreign minister said Hungary should be kicked out of the European Union for mistreating migrants.
The leaders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic are ready to put the brakes on Brexit and issued a stark warning to Mrs May.
(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo). Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel is interviewed as he arrives for an European Union summit at Bratislava Castle in Bratislava on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016.
Add the EU’s desire to demonstrate decisive actions, Britain’s pending exit from the bloc and continued US pressure on Europe to become more independent militarily, and the idea of a common defense strategy becomes more compelling than ever.
Despite the fact that the Bratislava summit, which ended today (16 September), is reported to have focused on security issues, at the final presser, Council President Donald Tusk, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and Slovak Premier Robert Fico, who hosted the meeting, issued stern messages to the UK.
But he said that his foreign minister talked about Europe’s fundamental values countries aren’t allowed to cherry pick from or to “throw out the window because of economic or other reasons”.
The 27 leaders – minus British Prime Minister Theresa May – say they want to show they can respond to the challenges of mass migration, security, globalisation and a stuttering economy.
Tory former attorney general Dominic Grieve, who supports the pro-single market Open Britain campaign, said: “The Government must make public all its internal analysis so Parliament and the country have a chance to scrutinise its decision-making”.
“Concerning the freedom of movement of workers and of persons. we are sticking to that position and this is not a game between Prime Ministers leaving and Prime Ministers remaining, this is about people in Europe”, Juncker said. “There are different views, different ideas”, he said.
The leaders of Germany and France are keen to present a united post-Brexit vote front for the European Union as both countries hold crunch national elections next year.
Hollande is trailing in the polls ahead of next May’s French presidential elections.
Mrs May has so far refused to guarantee the status of European Union nationals but insisted she wants them to stay after Brexit if the rights of Britons overseas are respected. But it is still struggling to deliver on its promises to creditors. How to deal with the euro’s problems remains divisive – on one-side pro-austerity countries led by Germany, on the other more social-minded governments.
Prime minister May or her spokesperson has yet to confirm Tusk’s comments to the press.
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“What Europe should not do is to continue sleepwalking in the wrong direction”, he said. “We need to resuscitate the European project”. “When they decide to get out, we will talk about it”.
