UK urged to get move on with split

Shattered Cameron to meet other leaders

EUROPEAN leaders will embark this week on a frantic drive to push Britain for a quick divorce, with top US diplomat John Kerry rushing to join discussions as the Brexit crisis goes global.

Germany’s powerful Chancellor Angela Merkel will host the leaders of France, Italy and the EU in Berlin today amid fears Britain’s vote to leave will create a domino effect in eurosceptic member states.

In what promises to be one of the bitterest summits in the EU’s history, British Prime Minister David Cameron will then face huge pressure in Brussels tomorrow to trigger the twoyear exit process immediately.

But Cameron, who has said he will resign by October and leave the negotiations to his successor, is to be left out in the cold on the second day of the summit on Wednesday when the other 27 EU leaders meet without him.

With a dismayed Washington fearing key ally Britain’s decision to leave the EU will harm Western unity, Kerry flies in to Brussels and London today.

For European powers, the priority is to divorce as soon as possible and stabilise a union that is already struggling with the effects of growing anti-EU populism, a migration crisis and economic woes.

Merkel has said there is “no reason to be nasty” in Britain’s exit negotiations.

But there are increasing fears in London that an impatient EU will want to make an example of Britain to discourage others thinking about a referendum of their own.

Her talks in Berlin with French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and separately with EU president Donald Tusk, will also focus on a plan for reforms of the bloc to stem the tide of populist anger against the EU.

In Brussels tomorrow, Cameron must run the gauntlet of his fellow leaders who just four months ago backed a special deal meant to keep Britain in the EU, and will now be talking to a lame-duck leader who failed to convince his own country to stay.

Cameron will explain the situation in the UK after the referendum at the EU summit dinner tomorrow, according to an invitation letter sent by Tusk to the 28 leaders.

European parliament chief Martin Schulz, who will also be present at the summit, urged Cameron to begin the formal proceedings to leave and warned that failure to do so would risk jobs across the bloc.

Triggering Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty – which has never been used before – starts a two-year clock ticking for negotiating a formal exit.

Britain will also have to negotiate trade deals and other aspects of its future relationship with the EU.

Tusk’s letter said the other 27 leaders would meet informally without Cameron on Wednesday to discuss the so-called divorce process and start a discussion on the future of the EU with 27 member states.

During talks in Berlin on Saturday, the EU’s six founding states urged Britain to leave as soon as possible.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said at the weekend it would not be an amicable divorce.