Off the wire
French President urges European leaders to protect borders, improve security  • European leaders formulate road map in EU summit to tackle challenges  • UN mission in Colombia ready to begin verifying, monitoring bilateral truce  • Millions of Europeans not feeling safe: Donald Tusk  • China's Pan claims third gold medal of Rio Paralympics  • U.S. stocks decline after CPI data  • China's Liu wins 400m T11 gold  • Chicago agricultural commodities close higher on short-covering, rainy weather  • China cuts U.S. treasuries holding in July  • Hamas condemns U.S. listing its top leader among world's terrorists  
You are here:   Home

EU must show membership beneficial in Brexit talks: Slovak PM

Xinhua, September 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

Negotiations with Britain after its referendum to leave the European Union(EU) must lead to a state that will clearly show it's beneficial to be a member of the bloc, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Friday.

"We can achieve this. In contrast to the UK(United Kingdom), we know what we want. Our stance is clear and it will be used immediately after triggering the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty," Fico said after an informal EU summit here, adding he believed EU wanted to maintain good ties with Britain.

According to Fico, however, the union rejects terms that will allow someone to cherry pick.

"If someone is interested in the EU benefits, it has to guarantee all the freedoms that are important for the EU," he said. Regarding freedoms, he was referring to the free movements of goods, workers, services and capital.

"We can't allow the outcome of the British referendum to lead to the fact that our people would have a second-class status in the UK only because it wants to meet the political goals and ambitions stirred up by this referendum," stressed Fico.

He added that in this point the stance of the Visegrad Four countries(Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) will be uncompromising. Enditem