'Dreamer' Tusk hopes UK might change its mind on Brexit

Theresa May
Politics
Brexit
Thursday 22 June 2017 at 5:42pm

The president of the European Council has said he still hopes that the UK might change its mind over Brexit and decide to stay.

Quoting John Lennon at a Brussels summit press conference, Donald Tusk said that when people asked him if he thought there was any possibility of the UK remaining a member, he replied: "The European Union was built on dreams that seemed impossible to achieve. So, who knows. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

Theresa May is set to make her offer over the status of expat citizens following Brexit to her European counterparts at the summit.

There are an estimated 3.2 million EU nationals in the UK and 1.2 million UK citizens in the EU.

Arriving at the European Council summit for the first time since this month's snap election left her in a weakened position at the head of a minority government, Mrs May insisted that talks on withdrawal had begun in a "constructive" way.

"What I am going to be setting out today is clearly how the United Kingdom proposes to protect the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and see the rights of UK citizens living in Europe protected," she said.

"That's been an important issue. We've wanted it to be one of the early issues to be considered in the negotiations. That is now the case. That work is starting."

However at a press conference following the opening session of the summit, Mr Tusk made clear that the 27 national leaders will not take part in negotiations on Mrs May's proposals on Thursday evening.

"This evening, Prime Minister May will inform us on her intentions with regard to the UK withdrawal from the EU," said Mr Tusk.

"It must be clear that the European Council is not a forum for the Brexit negotiations.

"We have our negotiators for this and so leaders will only take note of those intentions."

Rather than Brexit, the first session featured agreement on closer EU defence integration as well as plans to work with internet companies to remove terrorist and extremist content from websites, he said.