EU leader sets date for Brexit summit

EU LEADERS will hold a special summit on April 29 to adopt Brexit talks guidelines aimed at making the split the least painful for the bloc, President Donald Tusk said yesterday.

The meeting will come exactly one month after Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggers the two-year process of Britain’s departure, although she will not be invited.

Tusk said the priority was to create certainty and clarity for European Union citizens and businesses amid huge doubts about what an eventual Brexit agreement would look like.

The EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is not expected to start talks with London until mid to late May, shortening Britain’s time to get a good deal before it leaves the EU in March 2019.

“In view of what was announced in London yesterday, I would like to inform you that I will call a European Council on Saturday April 29 to adopt the guidelines for the Brexit talks,” Tusk said in Brussels.

“I personally wish the UK had not chosen to leave the EU but the majority of British voters decided otherwise.

“Therefore we must do everything we can to make the process of divorce the least painful for the EU,” he said, standing alongside visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

“Our main priority for the negotiations must be to create as much certainty and clarity as possible for all citizens, companies and member states that will be negatively affected by Brexit, as well as our important partners and friends around the world, like Japan.” The European Council president has said he will issue draft guidelines for the 27 leaders within 48 hours of May triggering Article 50 – the divorce clause in the EU’s treaties – next week.

Abe, in Brussels to push an EU-Japan trade deal, urged the EU and Britain to ensure a smooth transition period.

May told her cabinet yesterday that the letter to Tusk formally notifying him would be a “historic event” and the start of a bold new chapter as a prosperous, open and global nation.