Brussels, 29 April 2017
I think that today we will send a very strong message of unity of the 27 Member States, as we did already in Rome on 25 March, 2017 celebrating not only 60 years of successful history of our European Union but also the future of our European integration.
We will discuss issues related to our future partnership with the UK only at a second stage, including foreign affairs and security policy. But I can tell you already that the Brexit will not affect significantly our global work. We will stay, even at 27 in the future, the first market in the world, the first trading partner for all in the world, the first humanitarian and development donor and also a very strong the security and defence provider.
The UK contributes not more than between 3 and 5% to our EU missions and operations in the world. So the impact I expect on that is not that relevant.
But we will aim at a strong partnership for the future relations in a second stage and I am confident we will continue to work closely together also in the future.
See the video on EbS http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/video/player.cfm?ref=I137774
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