Finish Brexit negotiation before 2019 election — EU President

“In London I will also stress why the European Parliament favours the earliest possible triggering of Article 50, which is a pre-condition to opening negotiations”. British Prime Minister Theresa May, not pictured, hosts the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz for talks at 10 Downing Street in London, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016.

Once Britain invokes Article 50 and informs the European Council it is leaving the EU, it has a maximum of two years to negotiate the terms of its withdrawal.

Johnson said the talks may not even take the two years the treaty allows.

The govermment was “talking to our European friends and partners now in the expectation that by the early part of next year you will see an article 50 letter”, Johnson said from NY, where he has been at the United Nations.

“You invoke Article 50 in the early part of next year [and] you have two years to pull it off”.

Mr Johnson also revealed more details about the British government’s Brexit plan and hinted there could be free-movement sweeteners offered to non-EU countries as part any trade deal, such as more visas and work permits. Schulz said that during his stay in the United Kingdom he expects to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May, as well as the leader of the opposition Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. “But let’s see how we go”.

The EU president said that considering the highly complex modalities of a British exit from the bloc, he could understand that the British government wanted to take its time over the decision.

But he added that it wouldn’t be good for Britain or the European Union if the British voted for members of the European Union parliament while negotiations to leave the bloc were in progress, Germany’s dpa news agency reported.