Brexit summit starts in Brussels

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He said May will publish a detailed paper outlining Britain's approach on protecting citizen rights at the European Union summit on Thursday and Friday, which he believes "will form the right basis on which to reach agreement".

"We've laid solid foundations for future discussions and an ambitious but achievable timetable", said David Davis, Britain's Brexit minister, adding he was "encouraged" by the first talks.

Over after-dinner coffee, May will outline her plan to provide early guarantees for some three million people living in Britain from other countries in the bloc, a British source said.

But Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel - who has strongly argued for European Union unity on Brexit - said Tusk should let it be.

"If we back this image that Brexit perhaps would not happen, it brings an uncertainty".

Tusk made no direct reference to these developments in his invitation letter but noted that after a series of blows from Brexit to the eurozone debt crisis, the European Union was getting its mojo back.

In carefully choreographed talks that even saw the two men exchange mountaineering gifts, they agreed to discuss divorce issues before negotiations on a future trade deal can start.

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But Britain went from being one of the fastest-growing economies of the Group of Seven leading economic nations in 2016 to the slowest in early 2017, as the fall in the value of the pound after the Brexit referendum pushed up inflation and hit consumer spending.

"If you ask me are we going to make concessions, I must tell you that it is the United Kingdom that is leaving the EU, the single market, the customs union and not the other way around", the former European commissioner and French foreign minister told a joint press conference with Davis. As a result, Barnier said, there would indeed be discussions on trade in parallel with the EU's other issues - just not immediately.

French President Emmanuel Macron, attending his first summit, warned countries against defying Europe's principles and values, as some eastern European states challenge the bloc's refugee-sharing scheme, which was adopted with a legally binding majority vote.

Meanwhile Macron and Merkel are expected to recommend another six-month rollover of tough economic sanctions imposed against Russian Federation in 2014 over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has claimed 10,000 lives.

But with European Union citizens already guaranteed these rights across the 28-nation bloc, De Rynck said "there is nothing particularly generous about this issue".

"The current developments on the continent seem to indicate that we are slowly turning the corner", the former Polish premier wrote in his invitation letter. We want to find the best solution for them and their families, "said Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator for Brexit".

Still, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson remained upbeat Monday, saying he thinks the Brexit negotiations will yield "a happy resolution that can be done with profit and honor for both sides".

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