Brexit notice can’t wait for Tory cat-fight: European Union parliament

The European Parliament will “play an active role” in the British exit from the EU, its president Martin Schulz told press on Friday.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation, said Britain would probably make such a notification only in October, once a new leader of the Tory party is chosen to succeed him.

Britain has to negotiate two exit agreements, one a divorce treaty to wind down British contributions to the EU budget and settle the status of the 1.2 million Britons living in the EU and 3 million EU citizens in the United Kingdom; and another an agreement to govern future trade and ties with its European neighbours.

“We have the will of the British people on the table and it is now the question to implement it”.

Some Brexit supporters have suggested London could delay such notification, to make time for informal talks on the best possible exit deal.

The heads of the political groups in the European Parliament gathered for an extraordinary meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss bloc’s further steps.

Schulz stated uncertainty was “the opposite of what we need”, adding that it was hard to accept that “a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal fight in the Tory party”.

Weber said the European Union could not wait for British politicians to squabble over who would be the next prime minister.

Brexit was a chance to transform the European Union into “what the founding fathers initially had in mind”, he said, “not a loose confederation blocked by a unanimity rule that always delivered too little, too late”.