PM Plenkovic: Absolute consensus on negotiations with Britain to leave the EU

Leaders of the 27 EU member-states on Saturday adopted guidelines for negotiations on Britain's exit from the EU, and for Croatia the most important issue is the financial impact on the EU budget, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said after a summit meeting in Brussels.

"Generally speaking, for us, agreement on the financial deal and the issue of budget repercussions of the UK's exit are the most important," Plenkovic said.

The guidelines for talks on Great Britain's exit from the EU define the negotiating framework and the negotiating positions and principles the EU will stick by during the talks.

The main goals stated in the guidelines are ensuring the rights of three million EU citizens living in Great Britain, insisting that London should meet its financial commitments that were jointly adopted for the budget period 2014-2020 and ensuring a soft border regime between Ireland and Great Britain so as to avoid jeopardising the peace process in Northern Ireland.

The issue of Britain's financial commitments will probably be one of the most difficult ones in the talks.

According to unofficial estimates in the EU, those commitments total around EUR 60 billion.

The summit in Brussels also discussed the relocation of two European agencies now based in London. The discussion concerned only the procedure and criteria the EU will follow when choosing the new seats for those agencies - the European Medicines Agency, in which Croatia, too, is interested, and the European Banking Authority.

Text: Hina

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