EU leaders search for way out of 'existential crisis'

BRATISLAVA European Council president Donald Tusk called on EU leaders to take a "brutally honest" look at the bloc's problems when they meet in Bratislava to find a way forward after Britain's shock vote to leave.


"We must not let this crisis go to waste," Tusk told reporters on his arrival in the Slovak capital on Thursday.


With British Prime Minister Theresa May absent, the other 27 leaders will gather on Friday to try and agree a diagnosis of why people across the bloc are increasingly voting for eurosceptic parties and on ways to regain trust in the EU.


"We can't start our discussion ... with this kind of blissful conviction that nothing is wrong," said Tusk, who will chair the summit. "We have to assure ... our citizens that we have learned the lesson from Brexit and we are able to bring back stability and a sense of security and effective protection."


With governments deeply divided over how to bolster the economy and the euro zone and respond to an influx of refugees, Tusk has highlighted three priorities - strengthening external border controls, combating terrorism and reassuring people of protection from adverse effects of economic globalization.


Leaders want the summit to launch a process that ends with agreements when they meet in March in the Italian capital to mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc's founding Treaty of Rome.


However, with leading powers France and Germany holding national elections over the coming year, the bloc's immediate scope for agreeing substantive new policies is limited.


The summit host, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, is one of a group of leaders in ex-communist central and eastern Europe who has led a vocal revolt against Brussels and Berlin over their willingness to take in refugees. The so-called Visegrad group said they will repeat their call for tougher controls.


FRANCO-GERMAN MEETING


German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met in Paris to try and tune common agendas.


There is some disquiet in Berlin that Tusk's prophecies of doom risk backfiring by encouraging anti-EU forces, but both Merkel and Hollande echoed the need to overcome divisions.


Hollande said Britain's vote to divorce with the EU had triggered a crisis that threatened the bloc's very existence.


"The first priority is security ... our border security, our security against external threats," Hollande said, highlighting the issue that has become central to his bid to overcome awful poll ratings before a presidential election in April that is being fought against the backdrop of Islamist attacks in France.


Germany and France have outlined plans to deepen European military cooperation as Britain's departure removes one of the biggest obstacles to stronger EU defense in tandem with NATO.


Merkel, facing an election a year from now, is trying to recover from a backlash against her decision last year to let in a million migrants. She said: "We need to be able to protect our external borders."


One concrete step expected on Friday is agreeing a small EU border guard force to help Bulgaria keep irregular migrants from coming over its Turkish frontier now that an EU deal with Turkey has largely halted sea crossings to Greece.


With May keeping other EU leaders waiting before setting out Britain's demands and starting negotiations, there will be little talk of Brexit at a summit prompted by the British vote.


Martin Schulz, the German speaker of the EU parliament, urged leaders to agree a common line with London. If not, he told Der Spiegel magazine, Britain "would play us off against each other and that would be fatal for the EU".


(Additional reporting by Noah Barkin; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Janet Lawrence)