Eastern European nations lay down law over Brexit

AGROUP of Eastern European countries will veto any Brexit deal that diminishes the rights of their citizens who live and work in Britain, Slovakia’s prime minister has said. Robert Fico said the Visegrad Four (V4) – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia – want a guarantee that their nationals “are equal” before agreeing to any deal ahead of Britain leaving the European Union.

Prime Minister Theresa May has so far refused to guarantee the status of EU nationals in the UK, but insisted she wants them to stay after Brexit – if the rights of Britons overseas are respected.

Fico said: “V4 countries will be uncompromising. Unless we feel a guarantee that these people [living and working in Britain] are equal, we will veto any agreement between the EU and Britain. I think Britain knows this is an issue for us where there’s no room for compromise.”

Meanwhile, Downing Street has cast doubt on claims by European Council President Donald Tusk that Theresa May is likely to start the formal Brexit process early next year. Tusk said the Prime Minister told him during talks at No 10 it was “quite likely” she would be ready to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to leave the EU “maybe in January, maybe in February”.

However, yesterday a Downing Street source said the PM did not specifically mention January or February at the meeting and that Tusk’s comments were an interpretation of the conversation. The PM “recognises the need to deliver on the public verdict without delay,” the Downing Street source stated.

The response to Tusk will add to the confusion surrounding the UK’s withdrawal from Europe, with no clear signal on whether the country intends to stay in the single market or not. Europe’s 27 other leaders gathered for an informal summit in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, without May. Tusk, speaking about his meeting with May, told a summit press conference: “Prime Minister May was very open and honest with me.

“She declared that it’s almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year but it’s quite likely that they will be ready maybe in January, maybe in February next year.”

May’s office has said that Brexit would not be launched this year, but appeared to challenge Tusk’s account. Formal negotiations between the UK and the EU cannot begin until May starts the two-year process, which Brexit Secretary David Davis has insisted will be triggered without a parliamentary vote.

In other developments, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon vowed to block any proposals for an EU army while Britain remains a member of the Union, in a move likely to anger European leaders. In his state of the union address, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called for EU countries “to pool their defence capabilities in the form of a permanent structured co-operation,” and proposed a European Defence Fund by the end of the year.

But Fallon warned that the UK would veto plans for any EU army that may rival Nato.

“That is not going to happen,” he said. “We are full members of the EU and we will go on resisting any attempt to set up a rival to Nato.”

But former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Menzies Campbell said there was nothing the UK can do after Brexit to protect Nato from the potentially damaging effect of an EU army.

The peer, who is a member of the UK parliamentary delegation to the Nato Assembly, said: “Even as a fervent European I regard the creation of a European army as a deeply damaging, long-term threat to Nato. The cornerstone of European defence is Nato.