“At private talks in Downing Street, Donald Tusk again made clear that there would be no unofficial discussions before Britain officially triggered Article 50 and urged the prime minister to start the process” as soon as possible.
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Britain will trigger a two-year time-frame for concluding a fresh deal with the European Union as a non-member as soon as it launches Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
A meeting of European leaders is taking place later this month to discuss Brexit, but the United Kingdom will not be attending the discussions.
While the European Union leaders are expected to reassert their post-referendum position that they won’t start any kind of talks about the future relationship with the United Kingdom until Britain triggers Article 50, much of the discussion in Bratislava will likely focus on various European Union initiatives aimed at bolstering the bloc’s standing after June’s vote.
But she has indicated that the United Kingdom would be looking for a bespoke deal, and will not simply follow Norway’s example, which is a member of the single market but also bound by the free movement of people, a principle that allows European Union nationals to live anywhere within the bloc.
Theresa May was told yesterday that she needed to get on with triggering Brexit, with the head of the European Council saying pointedly: “The ball is in your court”.
“I’m aware that it is not easy but I still hope you will be ready to start the process as soon as possible”, he said.
Tusk tweeted that a quick initiation of negotiations was in “everyone’s interest”, and maintained that the EU’s goal was to establish the closest possible relations with Britain.
But the former interior minister, who was in charge of the ruling Conservative Party’s immigration policy, also says she wants the best trade deal for Britain, refusing to say whether the country will remain in the EU’s lucrative single market.
The talks at No 10 come after May faced accusations of vagueness and contradiction over the Government’s position on remaining in the European single market.
Overnight in Brussels, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Trade Minister Steve Ciobo were quizzed about their plans for a United Kingdom deal by several European politicians, who are still reeling from Britain’s decision to exit their organisation.
But EU leaders have warned that membership of the single market is conditional on Britain accepting the free movement of people. She said “there wasn’t a sense in the meeting that we are under pressure on this”.
Lawmakers who had lobbied for Britain to leave the European Union in the run up to the referendum have taken the economic data as proof that the “remain” campaign had tried to frighten voters into staying by forecasting economic difficulties.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the Government of issuing “contradictory messages” on Brexit which were exacerbating “huge uncertainty” about the UK’s future.
“We want to take the time to prepare for the negotiations by talking to stakeholders up and down the country and doing the work here”.
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They met for a bilateral meeting to discuss Brexit, ami. So May, who opposed Brexit as David Cameron’s Home Secretary, has said her government will not trigger Article 50 until it can reach an outline agreement with European leaders on the terms of withdrawal.
