18/12/2017 (Agence Europe) – In a press release published on Friday 15 December, the British Chamber of Commerce welcomes the guidelines of the European Council, which state that sufficient progress has been made to begin the second stage of negotiations on the United Kingdom leaving the EU (see EUROPE 11927). The British Chamber of Commerce urges the Commission and the Council to move fast on this matter and calls on the Council to give a rapid go ahead to a new negotiating mandate for the European Commission. On the question of the transition period, the Chamber of Commerce wants things to be kept as they are and for the EU acquis to continue to apply in the United Kingdom until future relations between the EU and the UK have been fully introduced. (PH)