:00:14. > :00:20.Hello, welcome to Outside Source, and Bratislava, where leaders from
:00:21. > :00:25.across this continent have come together at a time of crisis for the
:00:26. > :00:31.EU. They are trying to plot a future for the union. There has been one
:00:32. > :00:37.noticeable absentee. The UK was not invited because of the vote to
:00:38. > :00:41.Brexit. The EU leaders say any time the UK wants to start the
:00:42. > :00:51.negotiations, they are ready. We are well prepared. We can start
:00:52. > :00:57.procedures even tomorrow. Aside from Brexit, the focus has
:00:58. > :01:03.been the issues the EU knows the citizens care about, the economy,
:01:04. > :01:06.security and the migrant crisis. Today has raised many issues not
:01:07. > :01:11.just about what has been achieved here, but about the future of the EU
:01:12. > :01:14.and the UK. If you have any questions, use the hashtag. I will
:01:15. > :01:40.do my best to give you some answers. The 27 members of the EU who will be
:01:41. > :01:45.left once the UK Leeds have come together here in Slovakia with a
:01:46. > :01:50.number of goals. First, they want to send a message to the world that
:01:51. > :01:55.they are unified. Committed to the future of the EU. They wanted to
:01:56. > :02:00.save a listening to the citizens of the EU. If we drill in on the map,
:02:01. > :02:08.we can highlight where they have been meeting. At Bratislava Castle.
:02:09. > :02:12.On the south side is a huge press centre, from where I am speaking to
:02:13. > :02:16.you, and from where the press conferences been taking place. There
:02:17. > :02:22.was a hugely sibilant moment earlier. Every time the leaders come
:02:23. > :02:26.together, they do a family photo. This one was a bit different,
:02:27. > :02:34.because there were not 28 leaders in this photo, there were 27. Theresa
:02:35. > :02:39.May is not here. She and the UK were not invited. One of the big things
:02:40. > :02:47.that the EU wants to do today is to send a message about Brexit, and
:02:48. > :02:58.about the EU's plans. What was Kosovo is as an opportunity. He has
:02:59. > :03:03.said... Donald tells, the Prime Minister of Slovakia and Jean-Claude
:03:04. > :03:08.Yunker were giving a press conference just over there, let me
:03:09. > :03:18.play you some of what was said. Our procedures and rules described
:03:19. > :03:25.precisely in our treaty are to protect our interest, the 27
:03:26. > :03:31.countries, not a leaving country. This must be very clear. It is not
:03:32. > :03:38.against the UK. We are well prepared for the negotiations. We can stop
:03:39. > :03:48.procedures even tomorrow. -- start. But we have to respect the needs of
:03:49. > :03:54.our British colleagues. We made it clear since the beginning, the
:03:55. > :04:01.access to the internal market and the basis principles of the internal
:04:02. > :04:09.market, namely the one of freedom of movement of workers, we are sticking
:04:10. > :04:18.to that position, this is not a game between Prime Minister 's. This is
:04:19. > :04:26.about people in Europe. Let's talk to a couple of people who
:04:27. > :04:31.have been watching today closely. Donald Tusk also hinted that he may
:04:32. > :04:37.know the timing of these big O she Asians. He met with Theresa May last
:04:38. > :04:40.week in London. He revealed at the press conference that she said they
:04:41. > :04:48.would likely be ready to trigger the withdrawal process by January or
:04:49. > :04:52.February 2017. This is something that Theresa May has been
:04:53. > :04:55.noncommittal about publicly, so it is interesting that he would say she
:04:56. > :05:01.was open and honest and said it would likely happen in January or
:05:02. > :05:05.February. Wages are priced? Some people said we have got to get the
:05:06. > :05:11.French and German elections out of the way. We have got these huge
:05:12. > :05:13.milestones next year to get through. On the other hand, growing
:05:14. > :05:19.impatience from the other European countries to get going. How long can
:05:20. > :05:23.they continue? There was a strong message from Donald Tusk today, he
:05:24. > :05:29.said his job was to preserve the interests of the remaining 27, not
:05:30. > :05:33.Britain, to get the best deal for the 27, he has taken a tough line
:05:34. > :05:37.with London, he will not be pushed into discussing this until London
:05:38. > :05:47.works out what they want. You spoke about symbolism, the 27 flags of the
:05:48. > :05:52.EU, no union Jack. It is a striking symbol, with the absence of Britain,
:05:53. > :05:58.and a sense of the new reality for the EU. John Claude Junker said
:05:59. > :06:02.freedom of movement is not on the negotiating table, you have got to
:06:03. > :06:06.offer that if you want access to the single market. I have heard that
:06:07. > :06:10.from the EU, it will be tough to row back from that. Exactly, everybody
:06:11. > :06:17.says they will not compromise on what they want. There will be clear
:06:18. > :06:22.winners and losers, unless there is softer talk before they go into
:06:23. > :06:28.their rooms and stop negotiating. There will be mixed views from
:06:29. > :06:32.different states, some want a soft Brexit, as little Brexit as
:06:33. > :06:37.possible, including Germany, Angela Merkel wants to do the best deal
:06:38. > :06:40.with Britain, but others want to send a stronger message, France,
:06:41. > :06:44.Italy. They will have to see a consensus. Donald Tusk will have to
:06:45. > :06:47.take account of all of these different countries and what they
:06:48. > :06:52.believe should be the right relationship. Lots of viewers have
:06:53. > :06:55.said, what will happen to the border between the Republic of Ireland and
:06:56. > :06:59.Northern Ireland? I have not heard any detailed discussion of this at
:07:00. > :07:06.all. The Irish Taoiseach was here, he mentioned that. One of the themes
:07:07. > :07:12.was about securing the external border, and if Brexit happens, it
:07:13. > :07:17.will have a new external border in Northern Ireland. It is complex. A
:07:18. > :07:22.lot of political support to try and get some kind of solution, but
:07:23. > :07:25.experts would say it is a highly technical issue, and it rests on
:07:26. > :07:31.whether Britain leads the customs union or not. If it does, we could
:07:32. > :07:37.be looking at some kind of border being reconstructed. We will come
:07:38. > :07:44.back with you across the programme. If you have questions for our
:07:45. > :07:45.guests, use the hashtag. Brexit has been an issue, but it has not
:07:46. > :07:48.dominated this summit, it is a dominated this summit, it is a
:07:49. > :07:51.year it has been that there are year it has been that there are
:07:52. > :07:57.other issues demanding the attention of the EU's leaders. They surveyed
:07:58. > :08:03.their citizens, asking them what they cared about, these are some of
:08:04. > :08:12.the results. 19% said the economy as being one of their concerns. 39%
:08:13. > :08:16.listed terrorism. 48% listed the issue of immigration. You can argue
:08:17. > :08:23.the migrant crisis is the biggest single challenge. It is proving a
:08:24. > :08:28.challenge to find unified positions. I have highlighted four countries,
:08:29. > :08:37.Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. All of them have
:08:38. > :08:40.resisted the EU's quota system. The EU has already signed off the
:08:41. > :08:44.system, different countries take different amounts of migrants in,
:08:45. > :08:50.much of them are currently in Greece and Italy. These four say, you can
:08:51. > :08:55.tell us to do what you like, we will not take them in. The host of this
:08:56. > :09:03.summit, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, said, Slovakia will not
:09:04. > :09:07.accept one single Muslim migrant. Hungary will be holding a referendum
:09:08. > :09:13.on whether to take this quota of migrants. The Government is not
:09:14. > :09:16.sitting on the fence, these are some of the posters it spent millions of
:09:17. > :09:22.euros putting all over the country, arguing for a vote against. Did you
:09:23. > :09:26.know that Brussels want to settle a city of illegal immigrants in
:09:27. > :09:30.Hungary? Did you know that the Paris attacks were committed by
:09:31. > :09:34.immigrants? Some of you have used the BBC hashtag and getting me on
:09:35. > :09:57.Twitter. First, this question. What are they going to do? They have
:09:58. > :10:00.got a plan, but some of their members say they are not doing it.
:10:01. > :10:05.Hungary and Slovakia have brought the commission to court about this,
:10:06. > :10:12.that is how strongly they feel. The numbers are small, we have to
:10:13. > :10:16.remember, only the tip of the iceberg in the numbers that have to
:10:17. > :10:21.be re-settled. The other advantage, the EU/ Turkey deal has actually
:10:22. > :10:29.succeeded in a lot of ways. It has reduced the numbers of refugees. It
:10:30. > :10:35.has Dundee East you's work for it. The German Chancellor is quietly
:10:36. > :10:38.happy this was the right move to make and we may not see the same
:10:39. > :10:43.levels of immigration that we saw last year. If we were not aware of
:10:44. > :10:48.the political schism within the EU, this issue has brought it into
:10:49. > :10:52.everyone's view. It has become a story of North against the South,
:10:53. > :11:00.the Southfield they are being unprotected. And East against West,
:11:01. > :11:03.with the border with Turkey on the east, Bulgaria, they found that they
:11:04. > :11:07.would get 200 more border guards, which is a big victory for them,
:11:08. > :11:14.they share a border with Turkey, so it has become a matter of
:11:15. > :11:19.geopolitical priorities. The message from Donald Tusk was a show of
:11:20. > :11:24.unity, that is what the EU wanted to portray, so in the last two days he
:11:25. > :11:28.visited Warsaw, Budapest, to get these countries on board. Even
:11:29. > :11:34.during the week we saw John Claude Junker talk about imposing refugee
:11:35. > :11:38.quotas voluntarily, he is moving back a bit from his language from
:11:39. > :11:41.last year, an olive branch to some of the Eastern countries. Let's pull
:11:42. > :11:57.up a couple more. This is not quite as contentious as
:11:58. > :12:02.it might seem, it is an informal summit, a gathering of leaders, but
:12:03. > :12:07.they cannot adopt any formal policy for the EU without the UK being
:12:08. > :12:12.present. The UK will be present at more formal summit before it
:12:13. > :12:17.accepts, and the 28 will have to agree. But we should say the UK
:12:18. > :12:22.Government is not quibbling with the idea that the 27 countries it will
:12:23. > :12:27.leave behind have the right to meet and plot a future without the UK. It
:12:28. > :12:35.is not quite as controversial as it might seem.
:12:36. > :12:45.Not that many! If you went around this summit and said two people,
:12:46. > :12:52.would you accept it is a serious crisis for the EU, the vast majority
:12:53. > :12:57.would say yes, it is a crisis. If you ask the same group of people,
:12:58. > :13:04.you think the EU will disintegrate, and equally high majority would say
:13:05. > :13:09.no. Nobody can contemplate the idea of the EU not continuing, certainly
:13:10. > :13:15.not those in Government of the 27 member states that will be left. The
:13:16. > :13:21.comparison with the Titanic is limited. The intention is to make
:13:22. > :13:29.the EU work. Use the hashtag if you have any questions. We still have 15
:13:30. > :13:35.minutes on BBC News. A bit later, we will talk in detail about arguably
:13:36. > :13:39.the two most important countries, France and Germany, and their
:13:40. > :13:40.leaders, who are coming under increasing political pressure at
:13:41. > :14:02.home. Rescue teams have no idea how many
:14:03. > :14:11.people have died. We will give them whatever we have got.
:14:12. > :14:17.It looked as though they had come to fight a war, but their mission is to
:14:18. > :14:22.bring peace to East Timor, nowhere on earth needs it more badly.
:14:23. > :14:26.The Government's case has been presented by the justice minister.
:14:27. > :14:32.He has campaigned vigorously for abolition. Having once witnessed one
:14:33. > :14:36.of his clients being executed. She spent much of her time at this
:14:37. > :14:41.grotto, hundreds of pilgrimages are made here. It is expected this area
:14:42. > :14:45.will be inundated with tourists. The mayor and local businessmen regard
:14:46. > :14:55.the boom is yet another blessing of Saint Elizabeth.
:14:56. > :15:04.Welcome back. We are live in Bratislava. At the end of a day
:15:05. > :15:11.where we have seen an informal European summit. 27 country leaders
:15:12. > :15:19.have come together to offer unity and a vision of what the EU can
:15:20. > :15:26.become when Brexit occurs. The message from the EU is that when
:15:27. > :15:30.Duncan -- the negotiations start, they will be for the benefit of the
:15:31. > :15:37.EU, but the negotiations can start tomorrow if the UK is ready.
:15:38. > :15:40.One of the things which has been acknowledged by European leaders is
:15:41. > :15:46.the need for the EU to restate what it does for its member states and
:15:47. > :15:51.its citizens. The single biggest issue is finance, needs to make the
:15:52. > :15:56.case it improves the finances of its member countries and of all EU
:15:57. > :16:00.citizens. The problem is, all these years on from the global economic
:16:01. > :16:04.crisis, it is still struggling to get its economy back contract. I
:16:05. > :16:12.could have picked out any number of statistics. In Greece, youth
:16:13. > :16:17.unemployment remains over 50%. A lot of people have been talking about
:16:18. > :16:20.Portugal, if you look at it economic growth between the first quarter of
:16:21. > :16:25.last year and the first quarter of this year, it is 0.2%, well below
:16:26. > :16:28.what the EU would want and the Portuguese Government would want.
:16:29. > :16:35.The equivalent figure for Italy is not much better. 0.3%. That is
:16:36. > :16:39.creating huge pressures on those countries. To understand this
:16:40. > :16:43.better, I turn to some colleagues in the press centre.
:16:44. > :16:47.Given the fact I have 30 seconds, I will start from the debt. The
:16:48. > :16:56.Italian debt is the third worst in the world. To cut the debt, Italy
:16:57. > :17:02.needs to increase the GMP, but to increase that they need reforms. To
:17:03. > :17:07.do the reforms, they need stability from the political and institutional
:17:08. > :17:14.point of view. The task is quite big, but it can be done, because the
:17:15. > :17:20.deficit is under control and the economy is quite fair. The
:17:21. > :17:25.unemployed and freight is still high, as in other countries, but
:17:26. > :17:29.this is a major preoccupation, because you still have Portuguese
:17:30. > :17:38.people leaving the country and going to the UK, Belgium, France, to find
:17:39. > :17:43.better jobs and higher wages, because in Portugal the wages are
:17:44. > :17:49.not that high compared to other European countries. This must be a
:17:50. > :17:54.very important issue for the Government. The biggest economic
:17:55. > :17:59.challenge that Greece is facing the high unemployment, we have the
:18:00. > :18:05.highest in the EU, about 26%. It is a country that has been worn out of
:18:06. > :18:10.the recession, we have been about seven years in recession, the third
:18:11. > :18:15.programme that we are going through, the third time that we have borrowed
:18:16. > :18:21.money from our European partners, and people seem to be tired, they
:18:22. > :18:25.have paid so much taxes, many people have lost their jobs, and still they
:18:26. > :18:30.don't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
:18:31. > :18:35.The economy is preoccupying leaders, but so is the issue of security.
:18:36. > :18:40.Let's break that down into three elements. First, terrorism. The
:18:41. > :18:44.threat has been highlighted by recent attacks. We have had further
:18:45. > :18:49.commitments from member states are able better cooperate on issues of
:18:50. > :18:55.intelligence. The second point, the external borders. Fresh investment
:18:56. > :18:57.today in how those borders are patrolled, particular emphasis on
:18:58. > :19:04.the border between Bulgaria and Turkey. Then, the proposal for a new
:19:05. > :19:17.EU military headquarters. The military headquarters, how
:19:18. > :19:22.realistic is that? A lot of the proposals will be limited enough.
:19:23. > :19:27.The EU cannot just plough on with new big plans, it needs to be done
:19:28. > :19:32.within their treaties. Not all member states are in favour of this,
:19:33. > :19:38.six states are not members of Nato, they would be concerned, my own
:19:39. > :19:41.country included, Austria, about the EU increasing its capacity. But
:19:42. > :19:46.there is huge support from the bigger countries, France, Germany
:19:47. > :19:53.and Italy. John Claude Young cats talked about and EU army, officials
:19:54. > :19:59.say we are no -- nowhere near that, but Brexit has put the issue closer
:20:00. > :20:02.together, because the UK are posted. There was the idea of a European
:20:03. > :20:07.defence agency in the Lisbon Treaty and has not been used, but they are
:20:08. > :20:12.talking about creating one now. The Lisbon Treaty gives a lot of room
:20:13. > :20:16.for defence capabilities. A lot of the countries will try to exploit
:20:17. > :20:23.that as much as possible, because the UK has been the one to put the
:20:24. > :20:27.stop to that. In terms of the fresh moves on the border between Bulgaria
:20:28. > :20:30.and Turkey, some people will think the migrant crisis has gone on for
:20:31. > :20:34.well over a year, why is it only happening now? Officials have
:20:35. > :20:39.worried there is a specific problem emerging there. A lot of focus has
:20:40. > :20:48.been on Greece and coming through the sea, back in 2013 a lot of
:20:49. > :20:52.migrants came through Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Government have been
:20:53. > :20:56.strong on this, they have asked for more resources, and they have got
:20:57. > :21:01.that today. We will talk again in a couple of minutes. We are live in
:21:02. > :21:05.Bratislava at the end of a day when there has been an informal summit
:21:06. > :21:11.for the 27 members of the EU who will be left when the UK leads. A
:21:12. > :21:14.strong message from Donald Tusk, do not see Brexit is something specific
:21:15. > :21:19.to the UK that has no relevance to the rest of Europe. Look across the
:21:20. > :21:24.continent, you will see scepticism in lots of different forms, and it
:21:25. > :21:33.is to be taken seriously. Here is a tweet from one of you.
:21:34. > :21:41.This is a really important point. This is the map of France and
:21:42. > :21:47.Germany. The AFD is a party which pushed Angela Merkel's party into
:21:48. > :21:55.third place, and anti-emigration, anti-EU party. It is polling very
:21:56. > :22:02.well. 15%. In France, the front National has been a longer political
:22:03. > :22:04.force, polling at around 27%. There are major elections in Germany and
:22:05. > :22:12.France next year, it puts pressure on Angela Merkel and Francois
:22:13. > :22:14.Hollande. They were both holding a joint press conference, something
:22:15. > :22:18.they have not done at the end of an EU summit before, a couple of hours
:22:19. > :22:25.ago. Let me play you some of what they were saying.
:22:26. > :22:31.TRANSLATION: We agreed, all of us, now that we are in such a critical
:22:32. > :22:37.situation, after the referendum in Britain, but also in view of the
:22:38. > :22:42.other difficulties we have... TRANSLATION: The remaining 27 had to
:22:43. > :22:53.bring about some new perspectives to Europe. Europe must and can move
:22:54. > :22:56.forward, as long as Europe has clear priorities and as long as these
:22:57. > :23:06.priorities meet the expectations of the citizens. Security, protection
:23:07. > :23:09.and the future of our youth. I have mentioned through the
:23:10. > :23:13.programme that may be the number one priority was to offer a unified
:23:14. > :23:21.front to the rest of the world. They have done pretty well, but they have
:23:22. > :23:23.not quite managed it perfectly. The Italian Prime Minister has come out
:23:24. > :23:24.and commented about the press conference with Angela Merkel and
:23:25. > :23:43.from SWAT Lond. What is he referring to? He was
:23:44. > :23:49.hoping to speak more about flexibility in the budgets in the
:23:50. > :23:57.growth and stability Pact. Italy has huge amounts of debt, and they were
:23:58. > :24:02.hoping to hear more from the other leaders about making making
:24:03. > :24:07.exceptions for investments, about education, the other issue is that
:24:08. > :24:11.he felt they did not tackle migration and the way that he wanted
:24:12. > :24:16.them to, because he feels like people are honouring the Dublin
:24:17. > :24:21.Treaty and the migrants are coming to Sicily, he is being stuck with
:24:22. > :24:26.more migrants, and they are not being redistributed, and it feels
:24:27. > :24:31.like he cannot win either side. Graham asks, would it be better for
:24:32. > :24:34.the UK to wait until after the German and French elections, because
:24:35. > :24:38.they might have Government in place then who are more amicable in their
:24:39. > :24:42.approach to the negotiations? That is arguable, but the German
:24:43. > :24:47.Chancellor is one of the best friends Britain has got when it
:24:48. > :24:51.comes to negotiations. There is a new leader in Germany, things could
:24:52. > :24:56.be different. It might be better for Britain to get the negotiations
:24:57. > :25:01.started while she is still in power. I think Germany will play a key
:25:02. > :25:06.role, as it always does. It is all about domestic politics, the Italian
:25:07. > :25:11.Prime Minister has a referendum, he is playing to his domestic audience.
:25:12. > :25:16.The EU have tried to say, we are ready to set out proposals, but with
:25:17. > :25:22.these big issues in France and Germany, next year it will be hard
:25:23. > :25:26.for it to do that. The Italian but his entire career on the line, if he
:25:27. > :25:30.loses this referendum in a few months, he will not be at the table.
:25:31. > :25:35.A lot of the leaders may not be at the table in a year, so it is
:25:36. > :25:41.interesting, they need to come back winners or Ilott is on the line. Lee
:25:42. > :25:46.says, what is the chance of France or the Netherlands opting out of the
:25:47. > :25:51.EU? Very low, but then I thought the chances of being standing here in
:25:52. > :25:55.Bratislava witnessing an informal summit without the UK as a
:25:56. > :26:00.reasonably low, and here we are, so I have giving up making predictions.
:26:01. > :26:06.We are back in the studio next week, goodbye.
:26:07. > :26:11.The last few dregs of what was Typhoon Morandi are clearing the way
:26:12. > :26:12.from eastern