Britain first joined the EU, then called the European Economic Community, in 1973, a decision endorsed in a referendum two years later. He added that it was imperative to move quickly as the other 27 members needed to give the European Union new objective or there could be a growing risk of populism.
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– the founding members of the EU.
Leaders of the European Union, born out of a determination to forge lasting peace after two world wars, will open a two-day summit on Tuesday to grapple with Britain’s decision. Britain needs to invoke Article 50 of the European Union treaty to set the split in motion. They do not see a legal way to force Britain to start the process but have piled political pressure on Cameron to honour his pledge to launch Article 50 negotiations and respect the popular vote. More importantly, they can also work in those countries. “Any delay would unnecessarily prolong uncertainty”.
“Let June 23 go down in our history as our independence day”, said top anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, who had promised Britons the chance to retake power from Brussels and rein in high immigration.
The Cabinet will meet on Monday when a timetable for him stepping down will be firmed up, a decision he said he had communicated to Queen Elizabeth II.
He also said the European Union would remain one of the indispensable partners of the US.
Mr Tusk called it a “historic moment, but not a moment for hysterical reactions”, and proposed that the 27 other EU member states “start a wider reflection on the future of our union”. Establishing new agreements will be the hard part, and the European Parliament has final veto say over any final agreement between the United Kingdom and EU.
But British Prime Minister David Cameron, who resigned Friday as the inevitable outcome of the result he opposed, said he would leave the decision on when to start the withdrawal process to his successor.
“I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination”, he said as sterling, global stocks and oil prices plummeted.
“We have the will of the British people on the table”, Manfred Weber told reporters, saying it now had to be implemented and “the most important thing is that we do this very quickly”.
Juncker said the split was “not an amicable divorce” – adding that it was never “a tight love affair anyway”.
“There can be no doubt about the result.I would like to reassure markets and countries around the world that Britain’s economy remains fundamentally strong”, he said.
Obama said the vote reflected “changes and challenges that are raised by globalization”.
“There is a certain urgency … so that we don’t have a period of uncertainty, with financial consequences, political consequences”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at a meeting in Berlin of the EU’s six founding nations.
In Northern Ireland, the nationalist Sinn Fein party seized on the result to call for a vote on reunification with the Irish Republic.
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The possibility of such a vote is included in the 1998 peace accord that largely ended three decades of violence in the province, but leaders north and south of the border were quick to dismiss the idea.
