Hollande, Merkel, Renzi to hold August Brexit summit: Paris

Paris / AFP

French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will meet in August for a summit on Britain leaving the EU, the French presidency said on Wednesday.
On the day that Theresa May takes over as the post-referendum British prime minister, French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said “a summit or meeting” would take place at the end of August to discuss Britain’s departure from the EU. He did not specify where the meeting would take place.
France has pushed for Britain to quickly launch the procedure to break away from the bloc. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Tuesday May must make a decision “very quickly… so that negotiations can take place in the best possible conditions.”
May has said she does not plan to trigger Article 50 — which would start a two-year clock on Britain’s exit from the bloc — before the end of the year. “The sooner the negotiations start, the better it will be for everyone,” Ayrault said.
Hollande is also visiting Portugal, Austria, Slovakia and Ireland and the Czech Republic next week to give a “new impetus to Europe” after the Brexit vote.