‘Thank you, goodbye’, EU’s Tusk tells United Kingdom after Theresa May triggers Brexit

Calling for a “deep and special partnership” with Brussels, Prime Minister Theresa May struck a conciliatory tone on Wednesday in her letter formally announcing Britain’s intention to leave the EU.

Tusk said the European Union would seek to minimise the cost of Brexit to European Union citizens and businesses and that Brussels wanted an orderly withdrawal for Britain. May did not indicate Wednesday how much Britain would be willing to pay, saying only that it will no longer pay “significant sums of money on an annual basis” to the EU. The British government rejected Scotland’s bid.

Negotiations will soon hit a major contraction: Britain wants “frictionless” free trade, but says it will restore control of immigration, ending the right of European Union citizens to live and work in Britain.

The Article 50 letter would give “more clarity” on Britain’s strategy, and “on this basis, the 27 [other] member states and European Union institutions will define their interests and aims”, the spokeswoman said.

European Union negotiators, determined to avoid giving Britain such a sweet deal that Brexit could encourage imitators, want to avoid moving quickly to cutting special agreements on certain sectors – though they acknowledge that is likely to happen eventually. Complicated negotiations over the split, which will allow the U.K.to regain control over its own laws governing immigration, trade, and many other functions could take up to two years.

It took nine months but Britain has finally delivered Brexit.

But the former Polish premier added that the European Union would stay together during the talks on Britain’s exit. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of U.K.jobs directly tied to the EU’s almost $18 trillion unified marketplace could move to the Continent over the next few years.

She added that Ms May had assured her Britain would negotiate in a similar spirit in a phone conversation on Tuesday.

A March 21 poll showed 44 percent of respondents would vote “leave” and the same portion “remain” if the referendum were held again tomorrow.

The EU in coming days will come up with draft negotiation guidelines, and EU leaders will meet without May on April 29 to adopt a common negotiating stance.

Among them, in a section dedicated to the “future EU-United Kingdom relationship”, the document stresses that “any future agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom is conditional on the United Kingdom’s continued adherence to the standards provided by the Union’s legislation and policies, in among others the fields of environment, climate change…” Given the largest Canadian companies in the United Kingdom operate in heavily regulated sectors and also tend to operate in Europe, having to wait a minimum of two years before regulatory certainty will return is a risk some investors may decide is too great.

May’s acknowledgment that two years is a tight schedule for negotiating all she wants will be welcomed in Brussels.

He criticized May’s earlier statements that her government would take no trade deal over a bad deal, and trade under default rules set out by the World Trade Organization.

That raised the prospect of a tab even higher than the 60 billion euros ($64.5 billion) figure bandied about of late – an amount rejected by prominent pro-Brexit politicians in the UK.

Our private data is becoming an increasingly important human rights issue, as millions of us use electronic devices more and more to go about our daily life and communicate. Corporations in the banking, manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries are likely to shift workers out of the United Kingdom, given that the bulk of their customers are in the EU.

“It is in the interests of both parties to get this done as quickly as possible and as amicably as possible”, he said.