Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Associated Press
BRUSSELS
EU leaders pressed British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday for a quick and clear plan for Britain’s exit from their union, saying there’s no turning back from last week’s vote to leave despite worldwide uncertainty about the continent’s future.
As leader after leader rejected Cameron’s pleas for favorable conditions for Britain once it leaves, he frustrated them by refusing to initiate the divorce proceedings immediately. After what’s probably his last dinner with EU counterparts, Cameron insisted he would leave the departure negotiations to his successor, saying London needs time to formally trigger the start of negotiations
“Everyone wants to see a clear model appear” for Britain’s future relations with the bloc, he said, adding that he “can’t put a time frame on that.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed suggestions that Cameron’s successor might not start the formal EU withdrawal process because of the financial turmoil prompted by the vote and wide confusion about how to extract a country from the EU.
“I see no way to reverse it,” Merkel said after Tuesday’s meetings. She said this is not the time for “wishful thinking.”
EU Council President Donald Tusk said the bloc’s leaders want UK exit plans “to be specified as soon as possible.” Earlier, he said “Europe is ready to start the divorce process, even today.”
During the earlier meeting, Cameron sat at one end of the oval summit table in blue shirt sleeves, arguing for the best possible exit conditions for his island nation. Around the table, other EU leaders refused to negotiate, seemingly eager to kick Britain out as soon as possible to avoid further political and economic turmoil after the shock and emotion of the British vote to leave last week.
“We are not on Facebook, where things are complicated. We are married or divorced but not something in between,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel added.
Outside the Council room, markets were still in upheaval as they sought to recover from the unexpected exit vote, which will rob the EU of its biggest military power, its second economy and a diplomatic giant.
In a special session of the EU parliament hours earlier, there had been cries of campaign “lies” from legislators regretting the loss of Britain, and taunting by “leave” campaigner Nigel Farage.
“You as a political project are in denial,” declared Farage, leader of the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party. “When I came here 17 years ago and said I wanted to lead a campaign to get Britain to leave the European Union, you all laughed at me. Well, you’re not laughing now, are you?”