Brexit: EU leaders warn of tough times ahead as negotiations move to second phase
Updated
The European Union has agreed to move Brexit talks with the UK onto a second phase focused on trade and a transition pact, but some leaders cautioned that the final year of divorce negotiations before Britain's exit could be fraught with peril.
EU leaders, who had offered British Prime Minister Theresa May a rare summit round of applause over dinner in Brussels the night before, took just 10 minutes to agree that she had made "sufficient progress" on divorce terms last week and to give negotiators a mandate to move on to the main phase of talks.
"This is an important step on the road to delivering the smooth and orderly Brexit that people voted for in June of last year," Mrs May said outside her home in Berkshire, southern England.
"There is still more to do but we're well on the road to delivering a Brexit that will make Britain prosperous, strong and secure."
The UK Prime Minister reassured her party's ardent Brexit supporters that departure is certain on March 29, 2019.
The head of the EU executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, cast her as a "tough, smart, polite and friendly negotiator," a polite nod to a woman facing ferocious and complex pressures at home, whose downfall Brussels fears would complicate talks further.
Summit chair Donald Tusk said the world's biggest trading bloc would start "exploratory contacts" with Britain on what London wants in a future trade relationship, as well as starting discussions on the immediate post-Brexit transition.
A transition period is crucial for investors and businesses who fear that a "cliff-edge" Brexit would disrupt trade flows and sow chaos through financial markets.
While there was a "sigh of relief" at the summit table that Brexit talks can move forward, EU leaders said talks on a future free trade pact would not begin until after March.
This was a date underlined by "guidelines" that set out how to proceed as Britain seeks to unravel more than 40 years of membership.
"We have made good progress, the second phase of talks can start," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
"But this will mean even tougher work — that was clear today in the discussion — than we have experienced so far."
Reuters
Topics: world-politics, trade, united-kingdom, england, european-union
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