
EU leaders have agreed to spend more on common defense and security policy in their next long-term budget, said European Council President Donald Tusk. Leaders of 27 states were meeting in Brussels to shape the 2021-27 budget.

UK's approach to the next stage of Brexit negotiations seems to be based on pure illusion, Donald Tusk says. The European Council president told a news conference in Brussels that the UK was still trying to cherry pick its future relationship with the EU.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will set out “the way forward” for Brexit next week after a meeting with top aides on Thursday intended to resolve differences over strategy that are dividing her team, and frustrating European Union negotiators.

The UK economy expanded by less than previously thought in the last three months of 2017, official figures say. GDP grew by 0.4% in the October-to-December period, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, down from the initial estimate of 0.5%. The revision was due to slower growth in production industries, the ONS said.

UK has published proposals for how it wants the transition period immediately after Brexit to work. It says the period should last as long as it takes to prepare and implement the new processes and new systems. Number 10 denied this meant it would be longer than the planned two years.

More than 60 Conservative MPs have signed a letter to Theresa May making a series of suggestions about the government's Brexit strategy. The letter from the European Research Group says the UK should be free to negotiate and sign trade deals with other countries as soon as it leaves.

Angela Merkel has said that she is not frustrated by Britain's lack of clarity in Brexit, but is still curious about what the UK government actually wants to achieve in negotiations.

Theresa May is due to hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she seeks to make progress on negotiating Brexit. The PM will travel on Friday to Berlin for the meeting at the Chancellery. It comes a day ahead of a speech on Saturday in which she is expected to set out the security partnership she wants to maintain with the EU.

For the first time in seven years, the Euro-zone's economy grew quicker than the UK's last year, according to data from Eurostat released on Wednesday. The preliminary growth estimates for the final quarter of 2017 showed the bloc of Euro nations growing at a combined 2.7% over the course of the year, having expanded 0.6% in the final quarter alone.

United Kingdom inflation remained at 3% in January, the same level as in December, as reported by the Office for National Statistics, ONS. In November it was the six year high of 3.1% and most economists were expecting a small fall in the CPI to 2.9%.