Merkel says European Union future more important than Brexit talks

French president Emmanuel Macron is expected to push for curbing foreign takeovers in strategic industries by scrutinising investments at the European Union summit on Friday.

Formal talks started on Monday, with Brexit Secretary David Davis quickly capitulating to a two phase negotiation agenda, where Brussels and Westminster are to discuss the divorce bill before any further issues are put on the table.

“The Brexit negotiations started three days ago”.

Professor Portes said the other European Union leaders will welcome the change in tone but are unlikely to be more conciliatory in turn. We can hear different predictions, coming from different people, about the possible outcome of these negotiations: “hard Brexit, soft Brexit or no deal”, Mr Tusk said.

“The election result was not the one I hoped for, but this government will respond with humility and resolve to the message the electorate sent”, May said in remarks introducing the policy plan.

But the proposals are likely to meet resistance in Brussels, which has already published its own formal proposals which would guarantee the rights enjoyed under EU law to any European expat resident in the United Kingdom on the date of Brexit.

“I hope we’ll come to some form of continued [UK] membership or relationship with the internal market”, Mr Rutte said.

Hungary’s populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, annoyed because he felt Macron had slighted Central European nations in an interview, noted that the meeting Thursday in Brussels was Macron’s first EU summit.

“The EU has made a really big effort to maintain our status quo including giving us continuing freedom of movement rights which is really important because it allows us to continue to travel and work in other countries”, said Jane Golding, a British lawyer living in Germany, who helped set up British in Europe, a coalition of 13 campaign groups lobbying on behalf of Britons in Europe.

Her new approach will be tested nearly immediately, when she travels to Brussels on Thursday for a summit of European Union leaders.

We’ve wanted it to be one of the early issues that’s considered in the negotiations, that is now the case, that work is starting.

But, his intervention is just fuelling Remain politicians to try and stop Britain’s departure from the EU, Iain said.

Tusk and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker are also expected to report on recent meetings with US President Donald Trump, who has alarmed the EU and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation with his “America First” approach.

The leaders also welcomed plans to set up a common European defense fund that is expected to generate around 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) a year from 2020 to invest in developing military equipment.

She then added: “But it is also about how we will build a future deep and special partnership with our friends and allies in Europe”.

His Belgian neighbour Charles Michel was more cautious about even raising the prospect of Britain staying in the Union: “I am NOT a dreamer and I’m not the only one”, Michel told reporters.

There was no immediate detail apart from Tusk’s tweet.

Michel wrote in a Twitter message: “It’s time for action and certainty”.

In contrast, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is a hard-nosed realist.

“I think you can feel this difference between illusions and dreams”, Tusk said.