“The UK is leaving the EU” but will “continue to play a full role” until it leaves. That is the “very clear message” UK Prime Minister Theresa May has come to Brussels to deliver to the 27 other European leaders, she announced as she arrived for her first European summit. She said, too, that she would tell her colleagues that the UK will be “a strong and dependable partner” after it leaves.
The UK prime minister’s comments on her intentions were keenly awaited on Thursday and she received a number of warnings on her arrival in Brussels. French President François Hollande promised, as he arrived, that if May “wants a hard Brexit, negotiation will be hard”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said only that that particular discussion would be short, repeating that it was now for the United Kingdom to activate Article 50, which, May announced at the start of the month, will happen between now and the end of March
European Council President Donald Tusk was charged with calling on May to brief her colleagues during dinner on Thursday 20 October on the situation in her country ahead of triggering Article 50. Before the European summit, he rejected press reports that May was entering a lions’ den, “more a nest of doves” he said. He stressed that “she will be perfectly safe with us”. With a dash of irony, he hoped that she would realise that the EU is quite simply the world’s best company.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz told EU leaders at the start of the summit that the Parliament was pleased that there was “now some clarity on the date when the United Kingdom will make its withdrawal notification under Article 50”. However, he pointed out, “such an indication is not the same as actually invoking Article 50. The principle of no negotiation without notification still holds until that date. There will be no pre-negotiations before Article 50 is invoked”. He argued that the Parliament “must be fully involved in setting the new relationship between the EU and the UK – not least because it must give its consent to any withdrawal treaty and subsequent treaty setting out the full relationship”. Treating the Parliament “as an obstacle rather than a partner in this process would therefore be a serious mistake”, he warned. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)