The German Chancellor said she and the French President now have
“commonality”, after coming to an agreement on eurozone reforms.
Theresa
May is in Brussels for the first day of the EU Summit, to reassure
leaders her plans are coming along, in what is seen as crunch time with
the October deadline for the final draft Brexit proposal looming.
Mr Macron's aide said this morning there is a "serious and grave" rebuke planned for Britain.
On
the doorsteps of the EU Summit, the Netherlands Prime Minister Mark
Rutte said: “Time is getting on. We don’t have much longer. It is
difficult co come to agreements in our cabinet but she has to.
“The first problem is the Irish border. We need a backstop that is not temporary it is continuous. That issue has to be solved.
“I don’t want to talk in apocalyptic terms. But first, second and third priority is the Irish border."
Ireland’s Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, told reporters: “We will not prepare for a hard border in Ireland.”
The
Prime Minister will hold a number of face-to-face meetings with
European leaders on day one of the two-day summit, with the remaining 27
EU leaders discussing Brexit on their own on Friday morning, by which
point Mrs May will have left Brussels.
Chief EU Brexit negotiator
Michel Barnier said "serious divergences" remain over the question of
backstop arrangements for the Irish border if neither of the UK's
proposed customs proposals are deemed workable.
And crisis talks are also set to be dominated by the migrant crisis which threatens German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s future.
In
Germany there is growing political uncertainty after Mrs Merkel’s
interior minister Horst Seehofer gave her two weeks to reform migration
or he would push through plans to turn migrants away at the border.
LIVE UPDATES FROM THE EU SUMMIT BELOW
Jean-Claude
Juncker isn't happy. After earlier saying he won’t “lecture” Theresa
May, he tells her to get her cabinet in order for the sake of
negotiations.
Theresa May has been presented with a Belgium football shirt ahead of tonight's World Cup match between England and the Belgian national side.
12.32pm update: Nigel Farage warans against Brexit betrayalFormer UKIP leader Nigel Farage said delaying Brexit would be an “absolute betrayal”.
He
said: “This referendum that we had back in 2016 was about whether we
become an independent country. That’s what people voted for.
“What
the Government needs to do is to come up with a radical new plan and
needs to start getting European business on their side.
“Clearly
it should be in the interests of the European Union to have a sensible
trade deal with us because they sell us more than we sell them.
“They
are not behaving that way, I think we have got to try some different
tactics, we have got to be a lot more radical, but the British
Government needs to get European businesses, car manufactures in
Germany, for example, we have got to get them on our side against what
Michel Barnier is doing.
“The only crumb of comfort for people
that voted to leave, is that we appear to be on track - given Royal
Assent was given this week to the EU Withdrawal Bill.
We appear to be on track to leave at 11pm on March 29 next year.
“Everything else we are pretty unhappy about.
“Whether
it is taking back fisheries, whether it's being free to make our own
trade deals, whether it is taking back control of our borders.
“The
only crumb of comfort was leaving on the 29 March, and frankly, if that
gets delayed, that will be betrayal, no other word for it.”
12.22pm update: Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini tells EU to protect its borders
Slovak
Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini has put the cat among the pigeons in
Brussels by declaring the EU’s main priority was to “protect its
external borders”.
He said: "The biggest priority in this moment
is to protect our external border. First we have to start to do this and
after that we can continue to discuss about was is happening inside the
European Union."
12.01pm update: Spain's Pedro Sanchez looking forward to 'tete-a-tete' with Theresa May
Mr
Sanchez said: "We will have a tete-a-tete meeting with Prime Minister
May and look forward to continue with the negotiations and with this
constructive approach that the Spanish government is having."
When asked of he was disappointed with the slow progress on Brexit he replied: "No, I won't say that. Absolutely not."
11.53am update: Xavier Bettel calls for agreement on immigration
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said the EU had to thrash out a policy of legal immigration.
He
said: ”I think we have to discuss everything. If we have countries
saying this and that is a red line we will never get an agreement. Legal
immigration has to be the rule."
"There are so many people who
arrived in different countries and then made their way to Germany. I
understand Germany says 'Why do we have to deal with everything?'"
11.47am update: Finnish leader offers support to Angela Merkel
Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said is country was ready to co-operate with Germany on its migration proposals.
He said: “We have practical problems on secondary migration in Finland and Finland is ready to co-operate with Germany."
11.42am update: Pedro Sanches calls for show of solidarity with 'crisis-hit' Germany
Spain’s
new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called on European Union member
states to show solidarity to Germany which he said was "suffering a
political crisis”.
He said: "What we need is a common response to a
common challenge, which is migration and we have to combine
responsibility with solidarity.
“Responsibility in order to control our frontiers, to intensify our foreign and external dimension of the migration policy.
“And solidarity also with regards to other countries especially Germany which is now suffering a political crisis."
11.29am update: Viktor Orban fires warnining shots over migrant crisis solution
Hungary’s hardman leader Viktor Orban has insisted democracy in Europe tops the summit agenda rather than the migrant crisis.
Mr
Orban, whose anti-immigration rhetoric and refusal to toe the Brussels
line on refugees, has enraged fellow EU leaders said: "The main issue
is not migration, the issue is democracy in Europe.
“It is about what the people believe, what should be done."
11.03am update: Commons Brexit committee calls or departure to be delayed
The influential Commons Brexit Committee has called for Britain’s departure from he EU to be delayed.
The
committee said, even under the most optimistic scenario, there may not
be enough time to complete all the necessary work by next March when the
UK is scheduled to leave the EU.
In a report, they repeated calls
for an extension to the exit timetable if an agreement has not been
finalised and called for the Government to secure a mechanism which
would also allow for any transition period to be extended.
10.46am update: Donald Tusk fears for future of relations with US
European Council President Donald Tusk made his fears for NATO crystal clear in a letter to the 28 EU leaders.
He
wrote: “Despite our tireless efforts to keep the unity of the West,
transatlantic relations are under immense pressure due to the policies
of President Trump.
“Unfortunately, the divisions go beyond trade.
I will share with you my political assessment of where things stand. It
is my belief that, while hoping for the best, we must be ready to
prepare our union for worst-case scenarios.”
10.21 update: Theresa May urges united front against Russian threat
Theresa May will call on EU leaders to strengthen defences against Russian efforts to undermine Western unity.
She
will tell the summit: “Russia and other actors seem to be trying to sow
disunity, destabilise our democracies and test our resolve.
“We
must adapt our current defences to the ‘new normal’ and take
responsibility for protecting international norms and institutions.”
10.03 update: French warn Theresa May to expect rebuke over lack of progress
French
officials have warned Theresa May faced a “serious and grave” warning
from fellow EU leaders about the slow progress being made on Brexit.
An aide to Emmanuel Macron said Mrs May would be rebuked over the insufficient progress, particularly on Ireland.
The aide said: “It is very urgent to finalise discussions.”
9.38am update: Merkel calls for further eurozone reform
Angela
Merkel said further eurozone reform is needed to nip possible future
crises in the bud after aid programmes to some member states had been
successful.
She said: "The Greek programme, like others, was a
huge challenge but we can say the euro is stable, the programmes are
over and the countries are competitive and this was a good piece of work
and a good bit of European solidarity.
"But there is still a need to reform. That is why we agreed with France to work together.”
Ms
Merkel said proposals included developing the European Stability Fund
into a kind of European monetary fund to help avoid potential crises.
9.19am update: Merkel urges united front on migrant crisis
Angela Merkel has warned that failure to reach agreement on an EU migrant policy could be “make-or-break” for the bloc.
She said if all 28 members could not agree she would call for the creation of a coalition of the willing.
Ms
Merkel also said Brussels had to better manage onward migration across
EU borders and urged officials to seek agreements with African
governments as they did with Turkey.
8.57am update: Shares open down ahead of EU Summit
European
shares have again succumbed to trade tensions and political concerns
ahead of the tense European Union summit after the stock market enjoyed a
brief respite from selling in the previous session.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.1 percent while Germany's trade-sensitive DAX managed a 0.1 percent gain.
Financials
and mining shares were the biggest drags on the market, while high
dividend-paying consumer staples stocks such as Nestle and Unilever,
considered safer in times of market stress, made gains.
The
pan-European banks sector fell 0.3 percent, extending its sharp losses
this week with HSBC, UBS and Credit Suisse among the biggest fallers.
Miners declined 0.6 percent.
8.36am update: Donald Trump in bizarre outburst against EU
US President Donald Trump has launched a bizarre broadside at the EU ahead of the Brussels gathering.
He
told a rally in North Dakota: “We love the countries of the European
Union but the European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of
the United States. To attack our piggy bank.
