ROME – The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi was expected to call for a 'new season of investments' Tuesday in Brussels at the first EU summit since the British vote to leave the Union last week, diplomatic officials report.

 Renzi met the President of the EU council, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker and the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, to try and come to some decisions about how the Union is going to proceed next and called especially for collaborative agreements that are not “purely financially based.”

 The Italian premier has stated that “there is no time to lose” in setting out the action plan for the EU. “Citizens and markets need responses” he added, insisting that rather in languishing in the shock of the Brexit vote, “now it is the time to react and move on to a new page.”

 At the summit in Berlin on Monday, Renzi, along side Merkel and Hollande, reiterated the necessity for the EU now to concentrate on growth and unity, “now is not the time for division, but for vision” the Italian PM added, before adding the he personally is focusing on prioritising the tenets of solidarity and shared values that should characterise the EU.

 Discussions are also underway concerning the upcoming presidency of the EU, which in the second half of 2017 falls on London. The German newspaper Bild reports that the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel doesn’t want the British capital to take up the position and has discussed the options of “convincing Great Britain to renounce their claim to the presidency, or if necessary, to take it away.” The Dutch minister of defence, Jeaninine Hennis-Plasschaert, has endorsed Merkel’s opinion, adding that “cohesion [of the Union] must prevail […] as no-one will benefit from a continued position of political limbo.”

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