Britain was ordered to get out of the EU without delay
at a meeting of the EU’s founding member foreign
minister on Saturday outside Berlin .
As the dust began to settle on the Brexit decision,
chief diplomats from Germany, France , Belgium,
Luxembourg, Italy and the Netherlands made clear that
their focus now on the EU, not Britain.
“We understand and respect the result and understand
that Britain is now concentrating on Britain,” said Mr
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, host of the back-to-the-roots
meeting. “But London has a responsibility toward more
than just Britain. We must now be allowed to focus on
the future of Europe . ”
On Friday, departing British prime minister David
Cameron suggested that London would the first step in
divorce proceedings would come under his successor -
by October at the latest. But European Commission
president Jean-Claude Juncker told German television
on Friday night that it made “no sense” to hang around
until October and that he expected Britain’s farewell
letter on his desk “immediately”.
The six ministers meeting outside of Berlin agreed, one
after another, that they had no interest in allowing a
political vacuum develop and wanted Britain out of the
EU sooner rather than later.
Luxembourg’s foreign minister Jean Asselborn warned
London not to start a damaging “game of cat and
mouse” by stalling Brexit negotiations, saying: “The
people have spoken and we need to implement this
decision.”
Echoing his colleagues’ remarks, Dutch foreign minister
Bert Koenders said that “this will not be business as
usual” for Europe.
French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Paris
expected movement “in a few days” to begin exit
procedure under article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
The ministers showed a striking lack of sympathy for
Mr Cameron , but the French minister was perhaps
most forthright. After taking a chance by calling the
referendum, Mr Ayrault said Mr Cameron “now needs to
live with the consequences.”
Sensing a looming row over the Brexit timeframe,
Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed for calm on
Saturday.
“It shouldn’t take forever, but I wouldn’t fall out over a
short time period,” she said. “I take it that in Britain
there is a wish to deal with the referendum by
implementing the result.”
The difference in tone between Mr Steinmeier and Dr
Merkel indicated growing friction between Berlin’s
grand coalition partners and raises the prospect of a
clash at next week’s EU summit between leaders from
Europe’s conservative and socialist camps.
While Dr Merkel, head of the centre-right Christian
Democratic Union (CDU), has struck a conciliatory note,
Mr Steinmeier’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD)
have lashed out at Britain’s decision.
European Parliament president Martin Schulz, a
German SPD member, said it was “scandalous” that
Britain was holding out until October for talks and
accused Mr Cameron of “taking a whole continent
hostage for internal (Tory) party considerations.
Together with SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel, deputy
chancellor in Berlin, Mr Schulz has put forward a 10-
point EU reform plan proposing more powers for the EU
and national parliaments, and criticising the closed-door
meetings in Brussels attended by Dr Merkel and other
EU leaders.
On his way into the Saturday meeting, Mr Steinmeier
declined to confirm reports that Berlin and Paris will
present proposals next week for a “flexible” union,
allowing member states more leeway on their degree of
European integration. However he added that “it is
clear that Europe needs to deliver solutions the people
are asking for”.
The major issues of the day, he said, were refugees
immigration, youth unemployment and security
concerns.
Following widespread appeals for unity on Friday,
Saturday’s invitation-only meeting in Berlin raised
hackles among those not in attendance.
Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, wrote on Twitter: “If
EU 27 unity now a priority then the meeting of EU
‘founding six’ is not quite on message.”
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