Europe

The Latest: Tusk says EU rules out parallel talks on Brexit

Associated Press
Published | Updated

President of the European Council Donald Tusk, right, is greeted by the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat ahead of their joint press conference on the EU guidelines for Brexit talks, outside the Premier's office Castille, in Valletta, Malta, Friday, March 31, 2017. (AP Photo/Rene Rossignaud) (The Associated Press)

FILE- In this Wednesday, March 1, 2017 file photo, a Spanish flag flies on top of the customs house on the Spanish side of the border between Spain and the British overseas territory of Gibraltar with the Rock as a background, in La Linea de la Concepcion, Southern Spain. The EU's roadmap on Brexit negotiations leaves the U.K. and Spain to discuss what agreements will apply to Gibraltar, a dialogue in which Madrid could have the upper hand. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza, File) (The Associated Press)

The Latest on Brexit (all times local):

10:15 a.m.

EU Council President Donald Tusk says there will be no parallel talks on Britain's exit and future relations with the European Union.

Tusk insisted Friday after a meeting in Malta that withdrawal from the bloc comes ahead of any new relationship with Britain. But he also said the EU will not punish the U.K. in the exit talks, and that the so-called Brexit is punitive enough.

Tusk put guidelines on Britain's exit to the remaining 27 EU members Friday.

The head of the rotating EU presidency, Joseph Muscat, said citizens in Britain and other EU nations should not be used a "bargaining chips."

Muscat said the Brexit negotiations will be tough but "it will not be a war."

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9:00 a.m.

The guidelines that European Union Council President Donald Tusk is putting to EU members make it clear that withdrawal from the bloc comes ahead of any new relationship with Britain even though the rough outlines such a relationship may partially overlap.

In the draft guidelines obtained by the Associated Press, it says that first the EU and Britain must "settle the disentaglement" of Britain from the EU but added that "an overall understanding on the framework for the future relationship could be identified during the second phase of the negotiations under Article 50."

The guidelines also say the issue of citizens living in each other's countries is a priority, and call for "flexible and imaginative solutions" for the issue of the U.K.'s land border with Ireland.