EU to Issue Brexit Negotiating Approach

Local Editor

European Council President Donald Tusk is due to issue draft guidelines on how the EU intends to negotiate the UK's departure from the bloc.

The proposals will be sent to the governments of 27 EU members.

They will help set the tone for two years of tough negotiations and efforts to finalize a deal.

EU leaders said the UK must first agree its exit terms before talks can move on to future ties. London is calling for simultaneous talks.

British Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggered the Brexit process on Wednesday, by sending the Article 50 notification to Tusk.

Tusk - who is currently in Malta at a meeting of EU center-right leaders - is expected to send the draft guidelines to the 27 EU members on Friday morning, before they are amended and approved at a summit in late April.

On Thursday, Tusk issued a thinly veiled warning to the UK not to try and play divide-and-rule with the other 27 member states as talks begin.

He said: "Brexit has made us, the community of 27, more determined and more united than before. I am fully confident of this."

It comes amid claims May attempted to "blackmail" the EU by warning that if the UK is forced to leave without an agreement future co-operation on tackling terrorism and crime would be "weakened".

European Parliament chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt told Sky News the warning amounted to a "threat" and was unacceptable.

He said: "A big mistake that we could make from both sides is to start with launching threats to each other.

"It doesn't work like that - you cannot use, or abuse, I should say, the security of citizens to have then a good deal on something else."

Earlier, Brexit Secretary David Davis told Sky News the Prime Minister was not using security as "a bargaining chip".

He said: "What she said was that if we don't have a deal, it's not good for either side."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team