Substantive Brexit talks between the United Kingdom and the rest of the EU are unlikely to start before the end of 2017, former European Council president Herman Van Rompuy told the BBC.
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Herman van Rompuy, the former president of the European Council, said discussions on the “hard core” issues would have to wait until after elections in France and Germany in May and September.
“Before the German elections and before there is a new German government, I think no serious negotiations will take place”.
He warned that the EU’s negotiators would fight to preserve the interests of the bloc’s remaining 27 countries, who wanted to make sure other countries did not leave the union.
Van Rompuy said the free movement of people would be a red line if the United Kingdom wanted to maintain access to the single market.
“But as the Prime Minister said we’re not going to give a sort of running commentary because that will just undermine our initial negotiating stance at the beginning. Of course, we want an agreement which represents some kind of mutual benefit”, he added. “The objective of this is not to damage the national interest or damage economic interest, it’s just the reverse”.
She said: “Once we leave the European Union we will have complete control over who comes into the United Kingdom from the EU and who doesn’t, with one or two provisos of course”.
“There is not a feeling of we have to punish, but on the other hand most leaders don’t want to encourage other exits”.
“Britain had not many friends any more. I saw this clearly when I was in office when we had to vote on the candidacy of Jean-Claude Juncker [the current EU Commission President]”, he told BBC Radio 4 on Thursday.
Since the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May has said it again and again: “Brexit means Brexit”.
As leaders of every EU country, apart from the United Kingdom, are gathering in the Slovakian capital Bratislava to discuss the future of the Union, Van Rompuy told the British broadcaster that the UK’s decision to leave the EU as a “political amputation”.
“That image of a strong Europe, that is tarnished a lot after Brexit”.
If Britain were to trigger article 50 in January or February 2017, it would allow up to nine months to create a basic outline for an agreement before the German elections, with the bulk of negotiations starting in 2018 and potentially concluding by the end of that year.
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She said it was “too early” to outline the specifics of how that target would be reached, but appeared to confirm that the government was considering a work permit scheme for European Union migrants after rejecting the idea of an Australian-style points system.
