No country has ever left the European Union before, so no one knows exactly how the process will play out beyond the fact that Britain must, at some point, unambiguously notify the bloc of its intentions and set a two-year clock ticking for negotiating its departure.
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The six founding members of the European Union sent a clear message to Britain on Saturday to leave the bloc as soon as possible after Britons voted to quit in the biggest blow to the project since World War Two.
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said negotiations on Brexit should begin “as soon as possible”.
He noted there is “a certain urgency” for United Kingdom to start the process.
“We don’t think there is a need to swiftly invoke Article 50”, Matthew Elliott told Reuters in an interview. Concessions, they say, might encourage other member states to leave. “We were sad that things turned out as they did yesterday, and that’s not a reason to be in some way nasty in the negotiations”, she said on Saturday.
“It should not take ages, that is true, but I would not fight now for a short time frame”, Merkel said, in contrast with the more urgent call by the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, who were meeting to the north of the German capital.
“We have to give a new sense to Europe, otherwise populism will fill the gap”, he said, adding that the European Union could not wait for Cameron to depart in October before the exit process begins.
European Parliament president Martin Schulz, a German SPD member, said it was “scandalous” that Britain was holding out until October for talks and accused Mr Cameron of “taking a whole continent hostage for internal (Tory) party considerations”.
She insisted that deterring other countries from leaving the European Union should not be a priority in the talks.
French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Paris expected movement “in a few days” to begin exit procedure under article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Head of Vote Leave, Matthew Elliott, poses for a photograph at the Vote Leave campaign headquarters in London, Britain May 19, 2016.
Scottish government ministers were meeting on Saturday to decide their next move.
The British side is much more relaxed.
Global stock markets and the pound fell heavily on the news of the so-called “Brexit”, while credit rating agency Moody’s cut the UK’s outlook to “negative”. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, must make recommendations to Britain’s partners about what principles they might use to guide the exit negotiations.
In Colmar in eastern France, French President Francois Hollande echoed their sentiment, saying: “It will be painful for Britain but… like in all divorces, it will be painful for those who stay behind too”.
It is in Britain’s interest to delay the process so it can better prepare its exit conditions and pressure other European Union nations to make concessions.
Meanwhile, more than 1 million people have signed a petition calling for a second referendum on UK’s membership of the EU.
“We have to recognize the decision of the majority of the British people with deep regret today”, she said Friday.
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Top E.U. officials and leaders have been scrambling to draft a blueprint for what has never before happened: the withdrawal of an E.U. member state. “There is no way of wriggling out of it”, he said.
