Merkel, May meet to discuss U.K.’s exit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out preliminary talks with the U.K. government on exiting the European Union while offering Prime Minister Theresa May space to decide when her government is ready to invoke the notification necessary.

Merkel, who hosted May in Berlin on Wednesday during her first overseas trip as prime minister, said that EU rules stipulate a country must invoke Article 50 to start the legal process of leaving the 28-nation bloc.

“The EU treaties are very clear on this,” Merkel said at a joint press conference with May in the Chancellery. While the two will discuss the status of Article 50, no pre-negotiations will take place “formally or informally,” she said.

May, who will travel to Paris today one week after replacing David Cameron, had her first chance to size up the woman who will be one of her main interlocutors as she navigates Britain’s exit from the world’s largest trading bloc. Both pastors’ daughters, she and Merkel find themselves at the center of economic and political turmoil not of their making that prompted the pound to plunge and has sent shock waves across Europe.

“All of us will need time to prepare for these negotiations and the United Kingdom will not invoke Article 50 until our objectives are clear,” May said.

While both leaders committed to a constructive bilateral relationship in the post-Brexit world, the chancellor gave no illusions that the ties could be as close as with countries in the EU.