BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters) — European Union leaders want to reach a deal to help keep Britain in the bloc even if securing an agreement will be difficult for many countries, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday (February 19).
“Everyone wished to keep Britain as a member of the European Union, all of Britain’s different requests which were on the agenda were discussed, and it’s true that not everyone around the table found it all that easy to agree to those requests but there is a will,” she told a news conference in the early hours after a day of negotiations between 28 member states.
Also on the agenda was the migrant crisis, with leaders throwing their weight behind a joint EU-Turkey plan to limit the flow of refugees to Europe.
“We not only reaffirmed the Turkey-EU plan but also said that our priority is going to be implementing those objectives, and this is why this EU-Turkey action plan is something which we will continue to concentrate on. We can also say that we will try to bring about results as quickly as possible which is why at the beginning of March — and obviously that date needs to be agreed and confirmed with the Turkish side because they have not been able to participate today — at the beginning of March there will be an extraordinary meeting with Turkey where we will try to evaluate where we are and what we have achieved so far,” she said.
Officials said the proposed date would be March 5.