EU to UK: You’ll always be welcome back

Britain would be ‘‘welcome to come back’’ and rejoin the European Union even after Brexit has taken effect, the European Commission’s vice-president has said.

In a letter to UK citizens, Frans Timmermans said that Britain’s long-held Euroscepticism had ‘‘kept all of us in better shape’’ as he lamented the country’s impending departure.

He added, in a message published in The Guardian, that he feared other countries could follow the UK and quit the bloc in the years ahead.

Britain is formally due to leave the EU on January 31 followed by an 11-month transition period.

This could potentially be extended but Boris Johnson has ruled this out.

Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister, said his love for the UK had blossomed while he was studying in a British international school in Rome but that he now felt like a spurned ‘‘old lover’’.

‘‘You have decided to leave. It breaks my heart but I respect that decision. You were in two minds about it, like you have always been in two minds about the EU. I wish you had stuck to that attitude. It served you well and it kept all of us in better shape,’’ he wrote.

‘‘Was it necessary to force the issue? Not at all. But you did. And the sad thing is, I see it is hurting you. Because the two minds will still be there, even after you have left. In the process so much unnecessary damage has been done to you, and all of us. And I fear more will follow. But at the same time I find comfort in the thought that family ties can never really be severed. We’re not going away and you will always be welcome to come back.’’ – The Times