By the time of the summit in Bratislava, which will bring together all the countries of the European Union with the exception of the United Kingdom on Friday 16 September, the European leaders will have had the opportunity to agree on how to prepare for the discussions on the future of the EU.
On Monday 22 August, the Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, will meet the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, François Hollande, on the boat Garibaldi, which will be anchored off the coast of Ventotene, the island on which Spinelli and Rossi wrote their eponymous manifesto in 1941, marking the starting point of the European Federalist movement, when the two politicians were prisoners during the Second World War.
The three leaders had already held discussions ahead of the June European Council on the subjects of security, the economy and social cohesion and youth (see EUROPE 11581), following the victory of the Brexit in the British referendum of 23 June (see EUROPE 11580). The aim will be to move forward the reflection on the future of the EU of 27 member states, a central issue of the forthcoming Bratislava summit, ahead of the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome of March 1957.
On Thursday 18 August, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, spoke to Merkel at a dinner in Berlin. He plans to consult all of the EU leaders to discuss the form and content of the Bratislava summit, according to a Council press release. Talks have already been confirmed with Hollande, Luxembourg's prime minister, Xavier Bettel, the Irish prime minister, Enda Kenny, the British prime minister, Theresa May, the Latvian prime minister, Māris Kučinskis, the Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaite, the Estonian prime minister, Taavi Roivas, the Swedish prime minister, Stefan Lofven, the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat, the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)