Britain will lose more from ‘Brexit’ than EU: Mogherini

BEIJING, April 20, (Agencies): Britain will lose more than the European Union from its decision to leave the bloc, the EU’s top diplomat said on Thursday, and talks with London were expected to be difficult.

Prime Minister Theresa May formally began Britain’s divorce from the EU last month, declaring there was no turning back, ushering in a tortuous exit process that will test the bloc’s cohesion and pitch her country into the unknown.

Britain now has two years to negotiate the terms of the divorce before it comes into effect in late March 2019. The EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said during a visit to Beijing the negotiations would be difficult.

“They will have to dismantle their belonging to a community. We will lose an important member state,” she told students at the elite Tsinghua University.

“Let me tell you that to me all member states are important, equally, because one can be contributing more on some policies than others. But I think our British friends will lose more than what we lose,” she said.

Brexit negotiations will start as planned in June, after Britons vote in a snap general election, the EU said on Wednesday. Britain’s parliament has endorsed May’s call for a vote on June 8.

“It’s clear in our treaties that it is two years, only two years, from when the negotiations start, that was March this year. This cannot be delayed. I do not expect that it will be faster than that,” Mogherini said.

China has looked on with some concern at the Brexit process, nervous about instability in the bloc that is China’s largest trading partner. It will lose around a sixth of its economic output when Britain leaves the EU.

“The European Union, even after the UK will be out, will continue to be the first market in the world, the second largest economy in the world,” Mogherini said.

Meanwhile, EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker and the bloc’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will hold talks with May in London next Wednesday, a spokeswoman said.

“President Juncker will travel to London at the invitation of Prime Minister May to discuss the process of the Article 50 negotiations between the EU 27 represented by the commission and the United Kingdom,” commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told reporters Thursday.

In another development, May will make a formal pledge ahead of the June 8 election to end European Union free movement of people into Britain, the Daily Mail newspaper reported, citing unidentified party sources.

May will also include pledges in her election manifesto to pull out of both the EU single market and European Court of Justice, the newspaper said. May surprised allies, opponents and financial markets on Tuesday when she called a snap election for June 8.

Voters could give europhile politicians a boost in Britain’s upcoming election but the effect will be limited and the prospect of a grand alliance to soften Brexit is improbable, analysts said.