Tusk snubs Juncker on post-Brexit day summit

Commission president wanted EU leaders to meet the day after Brexit.

In a letter sent overnight, European Council President Donald Tusk rescheduled a special post-Brexit summit called for by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for the day after the U.K. exits the EU.

In his State of the Union address, Juncker called on Tusk and Romania, the country holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2019, to organize a special summit in Romania’s Sibiu on March 30, 2019, the day after the U.K. is expected to leave the EU.

While Tusk did as he was asked, inviting EU leaders to Sibiu during the digital summit in Tallinn last month, he instead chose to schedule the meeting on May 9, 2019, when the EU celebrates Europe Day, according to an agenda published Tuesday.

Preben Aamann, Tusk’s spokesman, said the summit was scheduled on May 9 as it would not be ideal to meet just after Brexit to celebrate.

A senior European Council source said while the Commission can ask for a meeting, “The formal scheduling of an EU summit can only be set by Tusk, only the president of the European Council can set the agenda of a summit.”

The European Commission declined to comment.

In Juncker’s speech in September, he said: “My hope is that on 30 March, 2019, Europeans will wake up to a Union where we stand by all our values. Where all member states respect the rule of law without exception.”