Outcome of the EU leaders' meetings on 22 and 23 March 2018

Briefing 09-04-2018

On 22 and 23 March 2018, the EU Heads of State or Government convened in four different formations with varying compositions and levels of formality: a regular meeting of the European Council, a Leaders' Meeting on taxation, a Euro Summit and a European Council (Article 50) meeting. While economic and competitiveness issues featured, as is traditional, on the agenda of this spring European Council, the discussions focused largely on trade, the Salisbury attack, Turkey and Brexit. The informal leaders' meeting on tax considered ways of adapting European taxation systems to the digital economy and of strengthening the fight against tax evasion and avoidance. At the European Council (Article 50) meeting, the EU-27 Heads of State or Government considered the framework and adopted guidelines for post-Brexit relations with the UK. They also welcomed the agreement reached by the negotiators on parts of the legal text of the Withdrawal Agreement, including the transition period. While there were no formal conclusions at the Euro Summit meeting, participants discussed the long-term development of Economic and Monetary Union and agreed to take relevant decisions in June 2018.