British Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in Brussels insisting Britain’s vote to leave the European Union must be honored, and was greeted with a warning from French President Francois Hollande that there are “hard negotiations” ahead.
May, attending her first European summit, is set to tell fellow leaders that the U.K. is on a one-way track out of the EU and there will be no second referendum after some suggested Brexit might not happen. “I’m here with a very clear message, the U.K.’s leaving the EU,” May said Thursday. “But we will continue to play a full role until we do and will be a strong and dependable partner after we leave.”
May’s message to the 27 other EU member states, at a working dinner during the two-day summit, will be her strongest indication yet that she isn’t seeking a close relationship between the U.K. and the EU after Brexit, a British official said. Her approach is already raising the hackles of some other European leaders.
Hollande said that by signaling she wants to sever most U.K. ties to the EU, leaving its single market and customs union, May is setting up her government for a bumpy ride.
“Madame May wants a hard Brexit, that means hard negotiations,” Hollande said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among those who say the bloc must face reality on Brexit, but the starkness of May’s message quashes lingering hopes of a reversal and encourage the view that her government wants a clean break.
EU President Donald Tusk has said Britain could ultimately decide to stay in the EU because the 28-nation bloc wouldn’t offer May any alternative deal to a hard Brexit, which would probably mean the loss of tariff-free trading rights.
Tusk and other European leaders have also told May that they won’t enter into talks over the terms of any Brexit deal until she formally invokes Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, putting Britain on an irreversible path out of the EU. May has said she will pull the trigger before the end of March and had hoped to be able to begin informal discussions in advance of the formal negotiations, which will last as long as two years.
“A declaration by Frau May is not an exit notification,” Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said. “It will be clear today that the Brexit negotiation process can only begin when there’s a formal notification.”
