Opmerkingen van voorzitter Donald Tusk over de bijeenkomsten van de Europese Raad en de Leidersagenda

Today we discussed the Leaders' Agenda for our work in the next two years, and I am happy to have received univocal support of all the EU i leaders to go ahead with this plan. This is not an easy task, as the ambition of the Leaders' Agenda is to deal with the most contentious issues, by which I mean the Eurozone i reform, migration crisis, internal security, trade and the future financing of the EU. That is why I also proposed a new work method, perhaps somewhat more direct, but at the same time more informal. It will mean confronting the areas where European cooperation does not work well and being honest about the reasons why. Confrontation is healthy as long as it is respectful and helps us move forward. And this is the spirit of our work ahead. But what I am very pleased about today is that none of the leaders questioned the fact that we must work united, hand-in-hand, with all the Member States on board.

After Prime Minister May's intervention last night, and our discussion about Brexit this morning, my impression is that the reports of the deadlock between the EU and UK have been exaggerated. And while progress is not sufficient, it doesn't mean there is no progress at all. Today the Council has agreed to start internal preparatory discussions in relation to the framework for the future relationship and on transitional arrangements. It is clear that this would not be possible without the new momentum given by the Florence speech of Prime Minister May. I would like to reassure our British friends that in our internal work we will take account of proposals presented there. So the negotiations go on, and we will continue to approach them positively and constructively. And as we are all working actively on a deal, I hope we will be able to move to the second phase of our talks in December.

Finally, as a result of our discussion last night on Turkey, we tasked the Commission to reflect on whether to cut and re-orient pre-accession funds. It was a substantive discussion, we want to keep the door open to Ankara, but the current reality in Turkey is making this difficult. It was also stressed that Turkey needs to respect all Member States in its relations with the EU, including when it comes to the implementation of the existing Customs Union agreement. And furthermore, we have listened to the concerns raised by President Anastasiades regarding Turkey's actions vis-à-vis the Greek Cypriots and Maronites.