EU’s remaining 27 to stay united

European Union leaders said on Wednesday they are determined to stay united at 27 in the wake of the British referendum vote to leave the bloc.

After a summit without British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday, they warned the UK that if it wanted to continue to enjoy the seamless EU single market after its departure it would also have to accept that EU citizens can continue to enter Britain.
EU President Donald Tusk said Wednesday the British exit left the others “absolutely determined to remain united.”
He said EU leaders will hold a summit — without Britain — in Bratislava on Sept. 16 to discuss further the fallout from Britain’s decision to leave the bloc, 
“This was a first exchange so it is too early to draw conclusions. This is why we started a political reflection with 27 states and we’ll meet on Sept. 16 in Bratislava to continue our talks,” Tusk said in Brussels.
Meanewhile, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she is concerned that EU will now become “much more inward-looking and less engaged with the world.”
She said that would leave the EU less capable of tackling challenges including a resurgent Russia and instability in the Middle East.
Rice, who served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush, spoke on Wednesday in Warsaw at a debate on democracy alongside the former Polish foreign minister, Radek Sikorski.
She said she believes a union without Britain will result in an EU that looks less to Washington in its foreign policy.
She said, “I see NATO now as unfortunately the only truly Atlanticist institution, but I don’t think it will have an effect on NATO. Where it could have an effect is on Europe’s ability to focus on some of the issues that are so central to American foreign policy.”
As an example of issues where the US sees Europe as its partner are the “finishing the democratic project” in Central Europe, “the challenges of Moscow and the Kremlin,” and instability in the Middle East.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, whose countrymen and women voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, traveled to Brussels to confer with European leaders. She was received Wednesday morning by Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament.
“We regularly meet with regional leaders,” said John Schranz, Schulz’s spokesman. “Of course, the times are extraordinarily.”
On Tuesday, European Parliament members loudly applauded a Scottish member who begged them not to let the pro-EU population of Scotland down.

Source: Arab News