Outcome of European Council meeting of 19-20 October 2017 and the European Council (Article 50) meeting of 20 October 2017

Briefing 27-10-2017

The principal result of the European Council meeting of 19-20 October 2017 was the endorsement of the ’Leaders’ Agenda’ setting out the main issues and work-plan for the European Council up to June 2019. EU leaders also agreed on changes to the working methods of the European Council itself, including a more ’political approach’ to its discussions, enabling more direct engagement on politically sensitive issues, more ‘rigorous follow-up’ to European Council meetings and decisions, and an increase in the frequency of meetings, if needed. The EU Heads of State or Government also took stock of progress in the implementation of EU migration policy, recognising the significant contribution made by Italy in the Central Mediterranean and committing to ensure sufficient funding to stem the flow of illegal migrants from Africa. They adopted detailed conclusions on Digital Europe, including on cybersecurity and e-Government, before welcoming the significant progress in preparing Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) in defence. EU leaders also discussed developments in North Korea (DPRK), as well as the situation in Iran and in Turkey. EU-27 leaders met on 20 October in a separate formal European Council (Article 50), without the United Kingdom, to discuss the latest developments in the latter’s withdrawal negotiations. While postponing the decision on starting the second phase of negotiations on the EU's future relations with the UK, due to insufficient progress made to date, EU-27 leaders called for further work to consolidate the convergence of EU-UK views and to be able to move to the second phase of negotiations as soon as possible. They will reassess the state of progress in the negotiations at the next meeting of the European Council (Article 50), in December 2017.