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Tuesday, 4th - 10th April 2017
Theresa May triggers Article 50 Theresa May triggered Brexit before lunch on the fateful date of Wednesday, 29th March. his is the moment Britain tells the European Union it is officially in a letter signed by the Prime Minister's own hand. The letter has been taken to Brussels and given to EU Council President Donald Tusk. This officially begins the Brexit process, which Mrs May pledged would commence before the end of March. She then made a statement to the House of Commons following Prime Minister's Questions. Britain will now face the most
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intense, arduous and complex negotiations since the end of the Second World War. Both the EU and the Government agree on one thing: this is ‘unprecedented’ territory and neither side knows how the talks will pan out. The letter informs Mr Tusk that Britain is invoking its rights under Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty which states: “Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.” Article 50 sets out the exit process but is deliberately vague – meaning member states could be forced to enter into long negotiations to thrash out the terms of any deal. Immediately after Article 50 is invoked, a two-year window begins during which Britain will be expected to enter talks on plans for its relationship with the rest of the Union. All 28 member states have to unanimously agree to the terms of a deal meaning the negotiations could take years. In the meantime Britain is still bound by the obligations and responsibilities of
EU membership. The President of the European Council Donald Tusk presented the EU's initial response within 48 hours of Article 50 being triggered. This set out the draft guidelines for how the 27 EU countries intend to approach the negotiations. Mr Tusk is now arranging a special summit of the EU27, expected to be held within the next few weeks, where they will finalise their objectives for Brexit. These instructions will be handed to Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief negotiator. As the European Parliament will also want a say it could be several weeks before the formal talks begin and many in the EU believe that serious negotiations will not begin until after the new French President is elected in May. The negotiations will be overseen by Theresa May and led by David Davis, the Secretary for State for Exiting the EU. Most of the workload will be done by Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Department for Exiting the EU, Sir Tim
Barrow, UK ambassador to Brussels, and his deputy Shan Morgan. The EU lead negotiator is Barnier, a right-wing French politician who was the country’s former Foreign minister. He will be assisted b the Belgian Didier Seeuws and a team of 30 officials. Officially there is a two year window to complete negotiations, but Mr Barnier has
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One of our top priorities for the negotiations is our citizens. As the Prime Minister said in her letter to European Council President, we should always put our citizens first, and we want an early agreement about their rights. We are ready to reach such an agreement right now if other countries agree.
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