Britain must not delay its exit: EU leaders

BRITAIN MUST launch the process of leaving the EU immediately and allow the rest of the bloc to forge ahead with greater union, European Parliament leaders said on Friday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation after the Thursday’s referendum result, said Britain would not make any formal notification before October, once his Conservative Party has chosen his successor.

Manfred Weber, head of the largest political group in the assembly, the centreright European People’s Party, called on Cameron to trigger Britain’s exit at an EU summit on Tuesday and to start leave negotiations immediately. “We have the will of the British people on the table,” Weber told reporters, saying it now had to be implemented “and the most important thing is that we do this very quickly.”

Any EU country that wants to leave the bloc has two years to negotiate the terms of the divorce, starting from the moment it formally notifies the EU of its intention to exit. But some Brexit supporters have suggested London could delay that notification to make time for informal talks on the best possible exit deal.

Weber said the EU could not wait for British politicians to squabble over who would be the next prime minister.

“We need to avoid a long period of uncertainty and the European continent cannot be occupied by an internal Tory (Conservative) battle about who will be the next leader of the Tory party and the prime minister of Great Britain,” he said.

Guy Verhofstadt, a European federalist, said he had no patience for “a cat-fight of the Tory party” and said the departure of eurosceptic Britain made it easier for the rest of the EU to unite. REUTERS

Severing ties with the bloc

The EU is in shock and entering uncharted territory. No member state has ever left and Article 50 of the EU treaty, which sets out how a state can exit the bloc, offers little detail. Although it provides a sketchy legal framework for a two-year period of withdrawal, many believe it will take longer to establish a new trading relationship between Britain and the EU and some fear the process will become bitter, disrupting the economy and European affairs across the board.

Cameron has said he will resign by October and leave it to his successor to notify the Union that Britain is leaving by invoking Article 50. That will set that two-year clock ticking and the EU itself cannot, officials believe, trigger the process itself.

Many want a quick, two-year divorce while negotiating terms for a future, armslength relationship may take much longer.

If no treaty is agreed, EU law simply ceases to apply to Britain two years after it gives formal notice it is leaving.

New trade barriers would hurt both sides’ economies. But the EU fears a political “domino effect” of other countries voting to quit the bloc would cost more long-term.

How is the EU coping?

European Parliament leaders have met and made statements.

European Council President Donald Tusk, who will chair an EU summit next week and has spoken to all the leaders in the days before the vote, delivered a statement in the name of the 27 other leaders in the Council, the EU’S governing body. European Commission President Jean-claude Juncker, the EU chief executive, hosted Tusk and European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Brussels.