Cameron’s pleas ignored at EU meeting in Brussels
British Prime Minister David Cameron fended off anger Tuesday from other European Union leaders at an unprecedented summit charged with uncertainty about the union’s future without the United Kingdom.
Leader after leader rejected Cameron’s pleas for favourable conditions for Britain once it leaves, while he frustrated them by refusing to initiate the divorce proceedings just yet.
At what may be his last EU gathering, Cameron sat at one end of the oval summit table in blue shirt sleeves, arguing for the best possible exit conditions for his island nation.
Around the table, other EU leaders refused to negotiate, seemingly eager to kick Britain out as soon as possible to avoid further political and economic turmoil after the shock and emotion of the British vote to leave last week.
“Europe is ready to start the divorce process, even today, without any enthusiasm, as you can imagine,” the summit’s host, EU President Donald Tusk, said.
Outside the council room, markets were still in upheaval as they sought to recover from the unexpected exit vote, which will rob the EU of its biggest military power, its second-biggest economy and a diplomatic giant.
When the traditional family photo of the leaders at the summit was taken, few were smiling.
Realizing the threat of a rift further tearing at the unity of a bloc of more than 500 million people, Tusk said he was planning a special meeting of the EU leaders minus Cameron in Slovakia in September to chart a way ahead. German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to use “all her strength” to prevent the EU from drifting apart.
Cameron was facing calls to start the exit talks as soon as possible, but he has said such negotiations should not be launched before October, when he resigns and a new British leader can lead the talks.
“Britain will be leaving the European Union but I want that process to be as constructive as possible,” Cameron said.
After decades of being an obstructive partner as the EU sought more unity, his counterparts put little trust in those words.
“As fast as possible, the U.K. must submit its notification to leave the European Union,” French President François Hollande said.
Britain’s Leave leaders hope the nation can still enjoy many perks of the EU internal market for business, while being able to deny EU citizens entry to the U.K. to address concerns about unlimited EU immigration.
Merkel, head of the EU’s biggest economy, made clear that isn’t an option.
“Whoever wants to leave this family cannot expect to have no more obligations but to keep privileges,” she said. “We will ensure that the negotiations are not carried out with the principle of cherry-picking.”
At the same time, unshackled from recalcitrant Britain, the other EU members need to plot a common way ahead. Yet differences between founding nations in the west and newer members in the east are increasingly tough to reconcile.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban railed against EU migration policies, which played a major role in the British referendum.
“If the EU cannot solve the migration situation, then the challenges we experienced now in the case of the United Kingdom will grow,” he said in Brussels.
Central European nations led by Hungary refuse to accept the imposition of EU refugee quotas. Farther north, Austria, Germany, Sweden and Denmark have all tightened border controls in response to the arrival of more than one million migrants last year.