Kaljurand: No answer on UK’s EU presidency from Johnson
Johnson hadn’t been able to tell her what was going to happen to the United Kingdom’s scheduled European Union council presidency, Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand (independent) said. Kaljurand met Johnson on Monday.
“I asked Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who attended the external relations council meeting for the first time, whether he had anything to add to what his prime minister said about the procedures and processes Britain has started. He had no additional information. So we’ll wait and see when Britain will officially start negotiating its leaving [the EU], and we'll wait for Britain to say what they will do about the presidency,” Kaljurand said at a press briefing in Tallinn on Tuesday.
She and Johnson would address the topic in greater detail later, she added.
About Johnson’s opening speech at the foreign relations council meeting, Kaljurand said that it was positive that Johnson said he hoped the relations between the union and the UK would remain good, constructive, and close.
“He reaffirmed that Britain will continue to contribute both in international affairs as well as in other matters affecting Europe. Britain will fulfil its duties as an EU member state as long as it is in the EU,” Kaljurand said.
The UK is scheduled to take over the rotating EU council presidency in the second half of 2017, immediately before the Estonian presidency in the first half of 2018. The outcome of the Brexit vote has given rise to speculations about a potential substitution of the UK in that role, or extending other presidencies.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS