A phoney war between Britain and Brussels has set in since the referendum nearly three months ago. A summit on Friday in Bratislava will see chiefs of all other 27 member states gather to discuss one issue: what next?
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However, Donald Tusk, the man who chairs the regular summits of European Union leaders, is keen to avoid sweeping gestures that he fears could backfire.
“The world is getting bigger”.
“We believe there’s a better way”, said a spokeswoman for Google.
British Prime Minister Theresa May was not invited to the informal summit in Bratislava, Slovakia.
“People in Europe don’t want this petty envy between the various institutions”, he said.
“They want to see control of movement of people from the European Union into the United Kingdom and that’s what we will deliver”, she declared.
But British sluggishness has been criticized by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, which accused the government of former Prime Minister David Cameron of “gross negligence” for failing to draw up firm Brexit plans before the June 23 referendum.
Mrs May has brushed aside criticism that she is trying to do the impossible by seeking a deal that will offer Britain control over migration and access to the EU’s lucrative single market. Another EU official said the dispute was “a cancer we have to cure”.
‘Because Europe was for many countries still a model, a model that you can achieve peace among peoples and states that waged wars for centuries, so it was a model of co-operation and integration. Will Britons need to apply online and pay a fee to go on vacation in Europe? Externally, the European Union needs to work better with countries that send migrants.
The project, WIFI4EU (Wi-Fi for you), aims to put free Wi-Fi hotspots open to all EU citizens in parks, squares, libraries and other public buildings. The government won’t answer that either. “At the moment the dispute remains unresolved”, he said, adding that the Commission was ready to continue the dialogue with the Polish authorities.
Seeking leeway from Brussels could be hard, not least because there is disagreement in the British government about what concessions to make in negotiations.
The PM hit back, saying only two years ago the SNP leader “didn’t want to protect Scotland’s place in the European Union because he wanted Scotland to leave the UK”. “The other is what kind of negotiating strategy should the European Union develop toward (separation with) the U.K”.
Instead, Juncker will warn that the remaining European Union governments should narrow their differences on addressing many problems facing their economies and societies.
Friendly: Nigel Farage, ex-leader of Ukip and MEP, shakes hands with Frans Timmermans, first vice president of the European commission, at the speech. Retail sales, house prices and industrial production have all held up, and inflation and unemployment have stayed low – though official data released so far only includes about a month of post-referendum activity.
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“I don’t just come in and say “I’m going to take a decision”- I actually look at the evidence, weigh up that evidence, take the advice and consider that and come to my decision”.
