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UPDATE: EU leaders adopt guidelines for negotiating Brexit

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 29.04.2017 14:44
EU leaders meeting at a special summit in Brussels on Saturday adopted guidelines for negotiating Brexit conditions with the United Kingdom.
PM Beata Szydło. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej ZborowskiPM Beata Szydło. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski

Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło told reporters that Poland had succeeded in having “all its expectations regarding negotiations on Britain’s exit from the EU” included in the guidelines.

Britain is expected to leave the European Union by late March 2019, two years after Prime Minister Theresa May triggered the exit procedure.

Both sides have two years to negotiate the conditions for the divorce. Talks between Brussels and London are expected to start after Britain's early elections in June.

European Council President Donald Tusk said the “firm and fair” guidelines were adopted unanimously at Saturday's summit, in which Britain did not take part.

“EU27 firm and fair political mandate for the Brexit talks is ready,” Tusk wrote on Twitter.

Before she took part in the EU summit, Szydło said: “At this stage of the negotiations, Poland has three main goals."

The first is to guarantee the rights of Polish citizens living in the United Kingdom. The second "is the issue of financial settlements, and the third is to build the closest possible partnership with the United Kingdom when it leaves the European Union,” she added.

It is estimated that up to one million Poles live in Britain, the majority of whom emigrated there after Poland joined the European Union in 2004. The Polish community comprises the largest migrant population of EU nationals based in Britain.

Szydło added: "Speaking of future relations and building a European Union based on unity and solidarity, we must also draw conclusions from what has happened and caused Britain’s exit from the EU."

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymański said on Friday that despite Britain’s divorce from the EU, Warsaw “hopes to retain present elements of economic, trade, political and defence cooperation, so that Brexit does not bring about any unwanted, non-proportionate or negative consequences in bilateral relations.”

(pk)

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