Free Republic

Leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Italy have called for a European Union which allows groups of member states to advance at their own pace, in a joint effort to cushion the impact of the Brexit. French president François Hollande hosted his counterparts on Monday evening in Versailles, near Paris, to prepare for a larger EU meeting later this week. “Europe must be able to draw the consequences of the Brexit,” he said in a joint statement with the other leaders of the European Union’s major economies. […] Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni joined...

The foreign ministers of Germany and France on Monday called for ambitious steps to strengthen the European Union after Britain’s shock vote to leave the bloc. “We will… take further steps toward a political union in Europe, and we invite the other European states to join us in this endeavor,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault wrote in a joint position paper. The top diplomats of the two core EU founding members and biggest economies said that “Germany and France have a responsibility to strengthen solidarity and cohesion within the European Union”. But they also signaled a willingness to accept a...