EU's Tusk to propose summit without UK

By Ata Ufuk Seker & Hasan Esen

BRUSSELS

European Council President Donald Tusk said Tuesday he would call for an EU summit in September to discuss the future of the bloc without the U.K.

"We need a few weeks to prepare this process and maybe the best place will be Bratislava," Tusk told reporters in Brussels ahead of a EU leaders meeting. Slovakia is set to hold the EU rotating presidency in between July and December 2016.

"I am not enthusiastic to tell this. This is not the scenario we have imagined. We have clear procedures. We will not start any negotiations unless England’s official notice," Tusk said.

U.K. citizens voted to leave the EU in a historic referendum last Thursday. Nearly 52 percent of voters rejected their country's 43-year EU membership.

*Anadolu Agency Correspondent Ahmet Sait Akcay contributed to this report from Ankara