The other 27 member states will be ready to issue guidelines for the divorce talks between the United Kingdom and the European Union within 48 hours of the formal notification by UK Prime Minister Theresa May of her country’s withdrawal from the EU, indicated European Council President Donald Tusk and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny separately on Friday 10 March following the European summit. The UK notification is expected to come sometime between the middle and the end of March.
“Today’s debate was not about Brexit. But we are well prepared for the whole procedure and I have no doubt that we will be ready within 48 hours”, Tusk said. “When notification of the triggering of Article 50 is received, there will be an immediate response from the European Council and guidelines will be ready within 48 hours”, said Kenny, too. A special European summit will be convened at which the 27 will adopt the above-mentioned guidelines, that have been in preparation by Commission and Council “sherpas” and negotiators over recent months.
Everything depends, however, on May’s chosen timetable. If Article 50 were triggered in mid-March, the 27 member states would meet on 6 April; notification at the end of the month would push the special summit back until early May, a source said on Friday. A further factor that might be expected to affect the timescale for the response by the 27 is the content of the farewell letter sent by May: she might choose either a brief notification or a letter setting out some of her demands in the forthcoming negotiations. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Mathieu Bion and Lionel Changeur)