Fico said the European Union leaders would like to show unity in the Bratislava summit and prepare a road map to design the way forward for the European Union, which would address the concerns of its citizens.
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“France and Germany will continue to work so that we can deliver concrete measures”, Hollande said.
Not only the decision by British voters to break away from the EU but other serious problems as well have have contributed to “the critical situation” that confronts the European partners, Merkel said.
Tusk said that high on the agenda was migration after some 1.5 million refugees entered Europe past year alone.
It is the clearest indication yet when the two-year withdrawal process is likely to start Earlier May’s office said that Britain would not start the talks this year, citing the need for more preparations.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel underlined that the Bratislava summit was the beginning of a period of reflection.
The chairman of the European Union summit Donald Tusk said divorce negotiations with Britain should be held only after a notification from London and should be run in the interest of the remaining 27 countries of the bloc, rather than Britain’s. We must remove imperfections from the past.
The idea is for the leaders to help produce a “Bratislava roadmap” of actions to be taken over the six months that will lead in March to the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, an European Union founding pact.
Mr Juncker said: “There is a clear interlink as we made clear at the very beginning between the access to the internal market and the basic principles of the internal market – namely the free movement of workers and we are sticking to that position”.
Germany and France have outlined plans to deepen European military cooperation, a document showed on Monday (12 September), as Britain’s exit from the European Union removes one of the biggest obstacles to stronger EU defence in tandem with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
He said on Saturday that fierce Visegrad opposition to mandatory quotas for refugees had persuaded the European Union to shift its approach to the migrant crisis.
The aim was to thrash out a “roadmap” of reforms during talks in the Slovak capital’s towering hilltop castle, and a boat trip down the Danube. An EU summit, without the participation of the United Kingdom, in Bratislava will kick off the discussion on the future of EU following Brexit.
Proposals for what Germany has called an EU “defence union” include the creation of an EU military headquarters, with medical aid and logistics capabilities, that would command EU crisis missions.
For instance, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was quoted by the Financial Times as, “I will be perfectly frank”.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose country has been at the center of the region’s debt crisis and seen the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants, mostly from Turkey, over the a year ago said things can not continue as they are.
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Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban has been pushing for an alternative.
