In a relatively brief section focusing on the United Kingdom in his speech on the state of the European Union, Jean-Claude Juncker pointed out on Wednesday morning that "the EU’s existence has not been put under threat by this decision" of the UK to leave the EU. He provided assurances that the referendum in the UK on 23 June would not result in the disintegration of the EU and pointed out that although the EU respected the British decision "it also regretted it".
Juncker did not want to spend too much time on the issue of the UK and simply recalled his message to the government of Theresa May. "We would be happy to receive the request to leave soon, so that we can put an end to any rumours and uncertainties", he said. "We have to maintain amicable relations with United Kingdom and we need to organise this relationship", he stated. Juncker also highlighted the fact that "the internal market and free movement is not à la carte". "We need to be quite clear about that", he said.
On Wednesday, the European Commission also announced that it had set up a working group to negotiate Britain's withdrawal, which will be headed by Michel Barnier from France. Sabine Weyand, from Germany, is currently the Deputy Director General of Directorate General Trade (DG TRADE) at the Commission, and has been appointed deputy negotiator in chief as from 1 October 2016. In a press release, the Commission stated that the "Article 50 Working Group" would be in charge of "preparing and conducting the negotiations of the United Kingdom, whilst taking into account the framework of its future relations with the European Union".
The Belgian liberal, Guy Verhofstadt, will be negotiating on behalf of the European Parliament. During a plenary session he said that Brexit should be perceived as an "opportunity" for European citizens. Syed Kamall, the British leader of the ECR Group criticised the entire speech made by Juncker and said that the latter had had an opportunity to listen to the distress signals emitted throughout Europe but instead of doing that, had decided to "repeat the same mantra as before". (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)