European Union draft guidelines soften line on future United Kingdom relationship

One possibility may be to set Britain a goal of showing it is getting on with agreeing the outline divorce before allowing trade talks to start.

Minutes before the joint press conference, Tusk tweeted: “EU27 does not, will not pursue punitive approach”.

But he added: “As of Wednesday, it’s acceptable even in cautious EU language to refer to a meeting of 27 leaders as European Council”. Verhofstadt also said that while he found the tone of May’s letter officially triggering Brexit “constructive”, he was “shocked” at the United Kingdom premier’s apparent threat to withhold security cooperation absent a trade deal.

A senior European Union diplomat likened the insistence on sequencing to the repetition by the 27 since Britain’s referendum that there could be “no negotiation before notification” – a stance they believe forced May to accept the two-year deadline set by Article 50, which she might otherwise have tried to avoid. The leaders, who will meet at a summit on April 29, must approve the proposals.

The challenges prior to moving onto the next step of talks are sizable, however.

He warned both sides that citizens in Britain and other European Union nations should not be used as “bargaining chips”. Also up for discussion is the amount owed under a Brexit divorce bill, which has been put at £52 billion (US$64.8 billion) owed by Britain. Populist voices in Britain have urged the Conservative government not to pay a penny.

The document also calls for “flexible and imaginative solutions” for the issue of the UK’s land border with Ireland, with the aim of “avoiding a hard border”. “Once principles are agreed and there is sufficient progress, negotiations on a new phase will be able to start”.

For the EU, already reeling from successive crises over debt and refugees, the loss of Britain is the biggest blow yet to 60 years of efforts to forge European unity in the wake of two world wars.

Tusk said talks between the European Union and the United Kingdom will be hard.

He said there would be “no punitive approach, Brexit is punitive enough“.

Tusk will speak alongside the Maltese premier Joseph Muscat whose government holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, media reports said.

Some felt Britain’s departure letter hinted that London was threatening to end security cooperation unless it gets a good Brexit deal.

But Tusk said he knew May personally, and that he refused to believe she would withhold security assistance in a bid to gain leverage in trade talks. This is why I rule out this kind of interpretation. that security cooperation is used as a bargaining chip.

Reiterating what Tusk said, there is no room for parallel negotiations.

If Britain remains part of the European Union single market for a time after Brexit, it would also have to respect all “four freedoms“, the document says, which would mean accepting free immigration from the continent.

“We really are moving forward now”.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said: “There’s a lot of goodwill.to achieve what the prime minister has said she wants to achieve, which is an orderly transition”.