EU to present draft guidelines for UK’s departure from bloc

Mar 31, 2017 (LBO) - Donald Tusk, president of the European Council will present draft guidelines for the British withdrawal to the 27 member states in Malta, Friday.



Tusk will speak alongside the Maltese premier Joseph Muscat whose government holds the bloc's rotating presidency, media reports said.





The moves comes after 48 hours of the British Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggering the Brexit process on Wednesday, by sending the Article 50 notification to Tusk. The proposals will be sent to the governments of 27 EU members and will help set the tone for two years of tough negotiations and efforts to finalise a deal, the report added.





EU leaders say the UK must first agree its exit terms before talks can move on to future ties.





The British PM has prioritized the desire to control immigration and to reject the authority of the European Court of Justice, effectively ruling out membership in the European Union’s customs union and in its single market in goods and many services. The negotiations will be among the most complex international talks ever undertaken.





Businesses big and small are unsure how they will trade across the new EU-U.K. frontier and some three million EU expatriates in Britain and a million or so British expatriates are unsure of their residence rights.