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Remarks by President Donald Tusk on the European Council meeting of 22 March 2018.

We have a long dinner ahead of us, so I will be brief.

While expecting the US decision on exempting the EU from the proposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, I had decided to move the trade discussion to later this evening. We will present the EU's approach in more detail tomorrow, following the leaders' debate.

Today, we had a frank discussion on taxation. The digital economy is a challenge for our tax systems. Most importantly, the discussion confirmed all leaders' desire to work further towards an effective and fair solution. We will return to this issue in June. In the meantime, Ministers will start working on the latest Commission's proposals.

We also discussed the economic environment with the ECB President, Mario Draghi. The situation is good, but it doesn’t mean that all our problems are solved. First, we need to avoid protectionism at the global level. This is a major risk for jobs, not only in Europe. In this respect, dialogue with the US is key. Secondly we must prepare our Single Market for the future. To make it happen, leaders have asked the Commission to present, by December, the implementation report on the internal market strategies, namely: Digital, Capital markets and the energy union. Leaders will monitor this process, as we want this to be completed before the European Parliament elections.

Finally, we also discussed recent developments concerning Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. It was clear to all the leaders that citizens’ privacy and personal data must be fully protected. We take this issue very seriously. The EU and national legislation must be respected and enforced. Thank you.

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