Top diplomats from France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg – the EU’s six founding nations – met in Berlin on Saturday for hastily arranged talks following the stunning vote to leave the political alliance.
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Juncker said Saturday the British had voted to leave and “it doesn’t make any sense to wait until October to try and negotiate the terms of their departure”.
I am a bit amused by the reflexive outpouring of indignation over the UK’s vote to get off of a sinking ship.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said he was “very sad” that Britain had voted to leave, but repeated that there would be “no renegotiation” of Britain’s membership.
In a statement, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the decision to exit was “democratically unacceptable” and added it would be “highly likely” that Scotland would seek independence to remain in the EU. Similarly, the future of the United Kingdom is itself unclear, with Scotland and Northern Ireland potentially withdrawing from the UK to retain ties with the EU.
“We take this very seriously and are determined to make the European Union work better for all our citizens”, they said.
The four said after emergency talks in Brussels that they regretted, but respected Britain’s decision.
Schulz called on both sides to end uncertainty, saying it was “the opposite of what we need”, and adding that it was hard to accept that “a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal fight in the Tory party”.
The UK’s representative on the European Commission, Lord Hill, announced he will stand down on July 15.
In a statement, he said he was “very disappointed”, but “what is done can not be undone”.
As of Saturday evening exactly 2,048,062 people had signed the petition.
Still, the pound crashed 10 per cent to a 31-year low at one point, before rebounding slightly for a 9.1 per cent loss against the greenback in late trade.
Britain also had its credit rating outlook downgraded from stable to negative by ratings agency Moody’s after the Brexit vote.
Mr Obama said he was sure Britain’s exit would be orderly and vowed that the United States and Britain would “stay focused on ensuring economic growth and financial stability”.
And this is just the beginning. This includes the Bank of England and the Central European Bank shoring up financial markets to prevent a recession, European leaders queueing up meetings to deter further splits from the EU, and the United Kingdom negotiating the new terms for free trade deals with over 50 countries.
Before heading in to the meeting, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the European Union would weather the shock of the British vote to leave.
“It is completely clear that we now have a situation that allows for neither hysteria nor paralysis”, Steinmeier told reporters.
“We must not resort to hectic activity, and act as if all the answers are ready”.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande led calls for the European Union to reform in order to survive a traumatic divorce with Britain.
“I trust the fact that these talks will take place in a positive and pragmatic way”, he said.
The U.K. has the second highest budget deficit in the G7 after Japan, and the highest current account deficit – that means it has to borrow more from the rest of the world to fund its imports than any other major advanced economy.
The stock selloff came as policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic began to process the decision by British voters to cast off the continental governing body.
“It’s clear that when we work together, we are stronger”, he said.
Simon Walker, the director-general of the group, says that while businesses will be busy working out how they are going to adapt, “we can’t sugar-coat this, many of our members are feeling anxious”.
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England’s 300-year-old union with Scotland could be another casualty of the referendum, since most people in Scotland voted to remain in the EU but were outvoted by a majority in much-larger England.
