Prime Minister's meeting with Chancellor Kurz of Austria: 9 July 2018
PM Theresa May met Chancellor Kurz at Downing Street.
A Downing Street spokesperson said:
The Prime Minister welcomed Chancellor Kurz of Austria for dinner at Downing Street this evening.
Their warm and constructive conversation touched on the Chancellor’s priorities for Austria’s presidency of the EU, Brexit negotiations, migration and the NATO summit.
The Prime Minister gave an update on the UK’s Brexit negotiating position and advised that the UK would be publishing a white paper on the UK’s future relationship with the EU on Thursday. She urged the EU to give this serious consideration.
Chancellor Kurz noted that a good UK-EU relationship was in the interests of both sides.
On wider issues, the leaders also agreed it was important to work together to tackle illegal migration to Europe. Chancellor Kurz advised that this would be a focus of the informal EU Council which he would host in Salzburg in September. The two leaders also touched on NATO ahead of the Summit in Brussels on Wednesday and on the importance of building ties between the UK and Austria in the digital field.
They closed the dinner by looking ahead to the Western Balkans Summit that the Prime Minister will host with EU and Western Balkan leaders tomorrow. They agreed that the stability and prosperity of the region was a shared priority for the UK and Austria.