European Council president Donald Tusk said the priority would be giving “clarity” to EU residents, business and member states about the talks ahead. Prime Minister Theresa May and the British negotiating team are set to dispute this demand when talks officially get underway but face an uphill task to get anywhere near the amount pro-Brexit Tory MPs are pushing for.
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A spokesperson for the European Commission said it was “ready to begin negotiations” and it had “everything ready and decided”.
Barnier said no deal could leave four million European and British citizens uncertain about their rights and future, result in the reintroduction of strict customs rules, create air traffic chaos to and from Britain and lead to the suspension of exports of nuclear materials.
But like any divorce, things may not go to plan.
The announcement of the timing for triggering Article 50 is likely to offer markets and businesses, preparing for Britain’s exit, a degree of certainty. The country doesn’t know what its future relationship with the bloc will look like – whether businesses will freely be able to trade, students can study overseas or pensioners will be allowed to retire easily in other European Union states. Those things have become part of life in the United Kingdom since it joined what was then called the European Economic Community in 1973.
Barnier also today told the Committee of the Regions in the European Parliament it would be important to clarify early in the negotiations the status of Brits living in the EU, and EU citizens in Britain.
A majority of Britons, 52% to 48%, voted to leave the bloc when the referendum was held in June.
He was cited by the Guardian as saying: “The key point that has come out of [the report] for me is the potential impact if we don’t come up with a trade deal and we don’t come up with a solution”.
“This is perhaps typical of the pick-and-mix attitude to the European Union that has characterized much of Britain’s relationship with the institution during its 44 years of membership so far”.
‘As the prime minister said, we not want to pay huge sums.
But the actual Brexit talks will not start for around three or possibly more weeks after the summit, when ministers will formally give a mandate to Mr. Barnier, EU officials said.
“The union would also be affected, even though we will continue to benefit from the single market of 27 and our free trade agreements in all cases”.
Mrs May’s spokesman reiterated her intention to agree an exit deal within the timeframe.
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And while some officials in Germany, Spain and France have been trying to court British entrepreneurs since the vote, Benjamin Trochu, co-founder and managing partner of Iron Group, the digital assistance services startup, doesn’t think these attempts will prove more successful now that the trigger date has been announced.
