British Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in Brussels insisting that Britain’s vote to leave the European Union must be honored, and was greeted with a warning from French President Francois Hollande that there are “hard negotiations” ahead.
May, attending her first European summit, is set to tell fellow leaders that the U.K. is on a one-way track out of the EU and there will be no second referendum after some suggested Brexit might not happen. “I’m here with a very clear message, the U.K.’s leaving the EU,” May told reporters Thursday. “But we will continue to play a full role until we do and will be a strong and dependable partner after we leave.”
May’s message to the 27 other EU members states, at a working dinner during the two-day summit, will be her strongest indication yet that she isn’t seeking a close relationship between the U.K. and the EU after Brexit, a British official said. Her approach is already raising the hackles of some other European leaders.
Hollande said that by signaling she wants to sever most of U.K. ties to the EU, leaving its single market and customs union, May is setting up her government for a bumpy ride.
“Madame May wants a hard Brexit, that means hard negotiations,” Hollande said as he arrived at the Brussels meeting.
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among those who have said the bloc must face reality on Brexit, the starkness of May’s message will quash any lingering hopes of a reversal and encourage the view that her government wants a clean break from the single market.
EU President Donald Tusk said last week that Britain could ultimately decide to stay in the EU because the 28-nation bloc wouldn’t offer May any alternative deal to a hard Brexit, which would probably mean the loss of tariff-free trading rights.
Tusk and other European leaders have also told May that they won’t enter into talks over the terms of any Brexit deal until she formally invokes Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, putting Britain on an irreversible path out of the EU. May has said she will pull the trigger before the end of March and had hoped to be able to begin informal discussions in advance of the formal negotiations, which will last as long as two years.
“A declaration by Frau May is not an exit notification,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern told reporters in Brussels. “It will be clear today that the Brexit negotiation process can only begin when there’s a formal notification.”
Italy called on May not to start the process before the end of March, in a departure from the EU’s common position that the mechanism should be triggered as soon as possible. Sandro Gozi, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s junior minister for European Affairs, said Thursday that Italy wants to ensure an EU summit scheduled for Rome in late March can focus on the future of the bloc, rather than getting swamped by discussions about Brexit.
While expecting inevitable disagreements between London and other European capitals during the Brexit negotiations, May will promise to try to make the process of leaving the EU smooth and orderly for both sides, according to two officials who asked not to identified discussing the prime minister’s strategy. She wants a good relationship between a strong U.K. and a strong EU and doesn’t want to damage the remaining 27 members, the officials said.
“It’s in the interests of both the U.K. and the EU that we continue to work closely together including at this summit,” May told reporters. “We must show that robust and united European stance in the face of Russian aggression. It’s vital that we work together to continue to put pressure on Russia to stop its appalling atrocities, its sickening atrocities, in Syria.”
May is also due to say that she recognizes Britain has always had a different concept of the EU from other member states and has been a problematic partner for the past 25 years. Now that game is over, the officials said.
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(c) 2016, Bloomberg ยท Thomas Penny
