Thursday
22nd Jun 2017
By EUOBSERVER
UK prime minister Theresa May on Monday did not want to promise MPs that the United Kingdom would stop contributing altogether to the EU budget after Brexit, the Guardian reported. She said only that "people want to ensure that it is the British government that decides how taxpayer money is spent.” Recently, the idea has been floated that post-Brexit, the UK could pay for access to the European single market.
EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday will be discussing shoring up defence cooperation among EU states, as France and Germany give the political green light to roll over sanctions on Russia.
The British PM will try to calm EU nerves over her fragile cabinet, as EU leaders discuss Brexit, migration, security, defence, sanctions and trade at the two-day summit.
Libya's naval coastguard is likely to get a big boost following a meeting on Friday in Brussels among EU heads of state and government.
Three key centrist ministers have resigned over suspicions of fake assistant jobs in the European Parliament.
EU leaders will get their first chance at the summit to assess whether the Franco-German motor of European integration has been refuelled by the election of French president Emmanuel Macron.
The Netherlands is hosting a meeting for nine small EU member states on the eve of this week's European summit. After Brexit, the Dutch will lose one of their key allies.
