EU leaders feel Brexit headache coming on

European Union leaders fear Theresa May’s shock loss of her majority in the snap British election will delay Brexit talks due to start this month and raise the risk of negotiations failing.

Guenther Oettinger, the German member of the European Commission, said it was unclear if negotiations could be launched on Monday, June 19, as planned. The talks, which the EU wants to ensure a legally smooth British departure in March 2019, would be more uncertain without a strong negotiating partner, he said. “We need a government that can act,” Oettinger told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. “With a weak negotiating partner, there’s the danger that the negotiations will turn out badly for both sides . . . I expect more more uncertainty now.”

His French colleague Pierre Moscovici said the result would affect the negotiations but declined to be drawn on whether the EU executive hoped Britain might ask to stay. He told Europe 1 radio that Brexit was supported by most of the last parliament following the referendum a year ago and that the timetable for leaving in 2019 was not “optional” but fixed in treaty law.

Former Finnish Premier Alexander Stubb was a rare senior commentator. He tweeted: “Looks like we might need a time- out in the Brexit negotiations. Time for everyone to regroup.”

May, who had campaigned against Brexit last year but took over the Conservative Party after David Cameron lost last June’s Brexit referendum, delivered her terms for withdrawal in March.

These include a clean break from the EU’s single market and customs union. May then called a snap election hoping for a bigger majority to strengthen her hand in negotiations.

That was also the broadly desired outcome in Brussels, where leaders believed that a stronger May would be better able to cut compromise deals with the EU and resist pressure from hardline pro- Brexit factions in her party which have called for Britain to reject EU terms and, possibly, walk out without a deal.

Elmar Brok, a prominent German conservative member of the EU Parliament, said Europeans would be disappointed May had failed to gain the majority that could have helped her override her party hardliners: “Now no prime minister will have that room for manoeuvre,” he said. “Which is what makes things so difficult.”

European leaders have largely given up considering the possibility that Britain might change its mind and ask to stay.