EU ‘Brexit’ Summit: Germany, France and Italy agree on way forward

Voices in EU call for change in treaties

In the wake of the Brexit, leaders of the EU are meeting, Tuesday to discuss on how to proceed with exit of the UK from the union. The leaders of Germany, France and Italy convened in Berlin on Monday to call for a “new impulse” in moving the E.U. forward after a British exit.

French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi are adamant that Britain kickstart the leave process as swiftly as possible, in order to focus on the security and immigration challenges which lie ahead for the remaining member 27 states. The three leaders have reportedly agreed to not focus on formal talks on the details of the UK’s exit before Britain invokes article 50 of the Treaty on a member state leaving the union.

UK PM David Cameron is expected to inform the rest of his counterparts on the referendum and is reportedly in no rush to activate the procedures of exit. On Monday in Berlin, Italian PM Mateo Renzi said ‘time to write a new page in European history’, while Francois Hollande said there was no time to waste, as ’there is nothing worse than uncertainty’.

Meanwhile, the effects of the Brexit have opened up discussions in the EU for a change in the internal structures of the union with voices calling for more integration. Guy Verhofstadt, Chair of the Liberals and Democrats Alliance group in the EP told Deutcshe Welle that it was time for the union to change and face the new challenges in a more effective way. ‘We need a financial government for the Eurozone, a European coast guard for common border control because we have the Schengen area. We need a common defence, because otherwise we don’t have a common foreign policy’, he said.

Germany, however, appears reluctant to make any changes to EU treaties at this stage, with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble underlining it would be a waste of time to change EU treaties now. The European Parliament will also hold an emergency plenary session, Tuesday to talk about the Brexit and its repercussions with European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker.