BRUSSELS (AP) – After almost a year of waffling, Britain on Monday finally opens negotiations with its European Union counterparts about leaving the bloc, with the final outcome, due in 2019, as important as it now seems unpredictable.
While the EU negotiating team led by Michel Barnier has been ready for months, Britain stalled even after it triggered the two-year process on March 29. An early election this month, in which Prime Minister Theresa May lost her majority, only added to the problems.
“Our big problem is that we have no picture, no idea at all what the British want,” said German Manfred Weber, the head of the EPP Christian Democrat group in the European Parliament. The other EU countries have a united position, but the British are “in chaos,” Weber added.
May’s government said in a statement it was “confident it can achieve a bold and ambitious deal that will work in the interest of the whole U.K.” The EU said it was also looking for a good compromise
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said: “If we don’t succeed both sides will lose.”