EU Chief Jean-Claude Juncker Wants UK To Rejoin EU After Brexit

“The Western Balkan countries have an unequivocal European perspective”, Jean-Claude Juncker said on March 9 at an EU summit in Brussels. Juncker made this statement after meeting 27 other European Union leaders.

He added: “The day will come when the British will re-enter the boat, I hope”. Some European countries also see Brexit as an opportunity to challenge British dominance of finance after decades and to lure financial firms and their staff to the continent.

It comes as the Standard revealed Theresa May could trigger Article 50, setting the wheels of Brexit in motion, on Tuesday.

It had been expected that Mrs May would have triggered Article 50 this week, but her struggles with the House of Lords over a range of issues mean her European Union counterparts will have to wait.

Meeting – without May – for the second day of the European Council meeting in Brussels on Friday, leaders of the remaining 27 EU member states said they have cleared their diaries in expectation that she will start the two-year Brexit process by Wednesday.

“We are well prepared and we shall wait with interest”, she said.

Mr Juncker and Mr Tusk also called for unity among the 27 ahead of talks.

Poland has hit out at plans for a “multi speed” European Union, arguing it will sideline some of the newer member states. There have been indications that Britain will be asked to cover commitments in terms of budget and pension payments as well as those for infrastructure projects it had agreed to participate in and its guarantees on loans.

“A so-called hard-Brexit we lose as a city, our country loses, but so does Europe”.

At first the slogan was “Brexit means Brexit”. “It is a lived reality now”.

Mr Tusk said: “When the United Kingdom notifies, it is our goal to react with the draft negotiation guidelines for the 27 Member States to consider”. Mr Verhofstadt, who also warned that the European Parliament would have the power to reject any Brexit deal brokered between the United Kingdom and the European Commission, claimed that the estimated three million EU citizens living in Britain were victims of “political games”.

“Such a possibility is indeed foreseen in the treaties now in force”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Radio 4 programme on Friday morning, the former Belgian prime minister described Brexit as a “tragedy” and added that he wants a system for Brits to keep rights of European Union citizenship after Brexit has taken place.