This week, the European Union is holding a summit in Slovakia. The summit will be an informal meeting where leaders will "begin a political reflection on further development of an E.U. with only 27 member countries, per the European Union schedule. This comes after the Brexit vote in June, when the United Kingdom voted to remove itself from the E.U. Theresa May, the current prime minister of the U.K. will not be in attendance.
Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, outlined the decisions made during the summit. The European Union plans to coordinate with Turkey in the Balkans to regain control over the influx of refugees into Europe. The E.U. also will work with its member to states to fight against terrorism, as well as focus on security within borders. This is significant after the attacks in Nice and Brussels earlier this year. A plan, known as the "Bratislava Roadmap", has been put in place to set "objectives" prior to the next E.U. meeting in Rome in March of next year.
The overall point of the meeting is to ease the growing uneasiness among the E.U.'s member countries. Following the Brexit vote, many member countries have become concerned over the state of E.U. and the repercussions of the U.K.'s exit from the E.U. The summit targets this, setting forth objectives that aim to create an air of normalcy. If the E.U. can show that it is able to function normally without Britain, or possibly better, then it will be able to prevent future exits from the E.U. However, the effectiveness of the Bratislava Roadmap still remains to be seen, as many of the objectives set forth are vague and do not contain measurable goals.
