By Jenny Gross
LONDON--The U.K. on Wednesday formally began the process of
exiting from the European Union, starting on an unprecedented path
to reshape its relationship with its closest allies in some of the
most complex negotiations the country has ever undertaken.
Nine months after Britain voted to leave the EU, Tim Barrow,
Britain's ambassador to the bloc, hand delivered a letter to
European Council President Donald Tusk formally notifying the bloc
that the U.K. will be the first country ever to leave. U.K.
government officials say there is no going back from there.
Mr. Tusk tweeted a photo of himself receiving the notification
letter.
"I choose to believe in Britain and that our best days lie
ahead," Prime Minister Theresa May said in Parliament. "We will do
all we can to help the European Union prosper and succeed."
Managing Britain's exit will be a major political test for Mrs.
May, who has only a small majority in Parliament. She faces
competing pressure from lawmakers on the right wing of her
Conservative party who want a complete cutting of ties with
Brussels and from politicians in Scotland, who say they will secede
from the U.K. if Mrs. May fails to cut a deal that maintains close
trade ties.
Scotland's Parliament voted on Tuesday to seek a new referendum
on independence to be held before the U.K. leaves the EU.
The negotiations will also be a test of the unity of the
remaining 27 nations of the EU--which have different
priorities--and the endurance of the bloc as a whole; The U.K.'s
exit, and the shape of any new deal, will dramatically shift the
internal dynamics of the bloc.
The triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which governs
EU law, will open a two-year window for Britain to negotiate the
terms of its exit from the bloc, unraveling 44 years of ties.
Many of Britian's anti-EU politicians have been waiting for this
moment for years. "The impossible dream is happening," said Nigel
Farage, one of the leaders of the Brexit movement, in a message
from his Twitter account. "Today we pass the point of no
return."
Politicians who supported staying urged Mrs. May to keep close
ties with the bloc. "It is crucial that in this two year period the
voices and concerns of those who want to preserve close links
between Britain and Europe are not shouted down and silenced, and
that those with power over this process are held to account," said
Anna Soubry, a Conservative lawmaker.
The negotiations are expected to be tough. Early indications are
that Britain and the EU are far apart. Mrs. May has said Britain
would pursue a clean break from the EU, regaining control over
immigration, leaving the jurisdiction of the bloc's courts and
exiting its common market.
British officials have said they want to negotiate the best new
deal they can for trade with the EU. European leaders have said
they don't want to punish the U.K. for leaving, but won't grant
Britain a better deal outside the club than it had in it.
U.K. Treasury chief Philip Hammond said the government is under
no illusions that giving up membership of the single market and
leaving its customs union could have repercussions for the British
economy.
"We understand that we can't cherry-pick, we can't have our cake
and eat it, and that by deciding to leave the European Union and
negotiate a future relationship with the EU as an independent
nation there will be certain consequences of that, and we accept
that," he said he said in an interview with the British
Broadcasting Corp.
Mrs. May had telephone conversations with Mr. Tusk, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker on Tuesday, a Downing Street spokeswoman
said.
They agreed "that a strong EU was in everyone's interests and
that the U.K. would remain a close and committed ally," she said.
"They also agreed on the importance of entering into negotiations
in a constructive and positive spirit, and of ensuring a smooth and
orderly exit process."
Late on Tuesday, Downing Street released a photo of Mrs. May
signing the Article 50 letter under a portrait of Robert Walpole,
the country's first prime minister.
One of the first--and likely most contentious--issues in the
negotiations is set to be how much the U.K. will have to pay to
exit from the bloc, said Iain Begg, a research fellow at the London
School of Economics.
While some U.K. officials have said the country shouldn't have
to pay anything, EU officials say the bill, which would include
payments for programs the U.K. had committed to before it voted to
leave, could be as high as EUR50 billion ($54 billion) to EUR60
billion.
"Failure to settle this thorny, if ultimately straightforward
issue quickly could have a damaging effect on other elements of the
negotiations," Mr. Begg said.
Mrs. May wants to negotiate the U.K.'s new trading and financial
relationship with the 27 other EU member states, during which she
will strive to protect London's status as a financial hub. But
whether she can accomplish that in the tight two-year time span is
unclear.
Mrs. May has said one of her priorities is to guarantee EU
citizens living in Britain and U.K. citizens living in other parts
of Europe continue to have the right to stay even after the U.K.
leaves. The EU has said talks on that issue alone will likely take
at least several months.
The U.K. and the EU will also have to decide what to do with
unspent EU funds that were supposed to go to U.K. farmers, how to
implement cross-border security arrangements including access to EU
security databases, and whether the U.K. will stay under the
jurisdiction of EU regulatory agencies for issues, like nuclear
power, that are handled by the bloc's institutions.
On Thursday, Mrs. May is set to publish details of her plans to
transfer EU law into U.K. law, so that 19,000 laws and regulations
formed over the past four decades will continue to apply to the
U.K. after it leaves the bloc, while allowing Parliament to amend
the laws as it deems necessary.
Within 48 hours of Britain triggering Article 50, Mr. Tusk is
expected to send draft guidelines to the 27 remaining capitals
framing the talks from the EU's side. Those guidelines should be
finally agreed upon at a Brussels summit on April 29.
After that, EU governments and the European Commission, which is
set to lead day-to-day negotiations, will likely take several weeks
to set a detailed negotiating mandate for Michel Barnier, the EU's
Brexit negotiator. Only then, possibly in late May, are
negotiations set to begin in earnest.
Laurence Norman in Brussels contributed to this article.
Write to Jenny Gross at jenny.gross@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 29, 2017 08:05 ET (12:05 GMT)
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