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Britain and E.U. Scramble to Respond After Referendum Confusion in Britain, and in E.U., Over Where to Go From Here
(about 1 hour later)
LONDON — Leading European officials urged Britain on Saturday to move quickly to begin the long process of its exit from the European Union, after the vote to leave the bloc plunged Europe into uncertainty. LONDON — With British politics in turmoil, there were already clear indications on Saturday of a tense and bickering divorce from the European Union.
An emergency meeting in Berlin on Saturday of European foreign ministers from the European Union’s six founding states — Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands — revealed strong impatience with Britain. Britons woke up to a diminished currency and much confusion about the consequences of their vote on Thursday to quit the European Union, including who would be their next prime minister. The leaders of the campaign to exit the bloc, or “Brexit,” continued to disagree over what kind of relationship they wanted with Europe, and thousands of Britons started signing a petition asking for a second referendum.
The result of the referendum on Thursday has already transformed the political and economic landscape in Britain and beyond: Prime Minister David Cameron said he will quit by October, stock markets fell sharply around the world, and Scottish leaders said another referendum on independence was a strong possibility. Meeting in Berlin, European leaders told Britain to hurry up and begin the formal process of exiting the union, while Prime Minister David Cameron said that process could wait until his replacement was chosen in October and leaders of the “Leave” campaign suggested it could come even later, after a new round of talks with Brussels.
“It is relatively urgent,” said the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, in Berlin. “On the one hand there are the interests of the British, but also those of the Europeans. It can’t be that we now face a time of uncertainty that will result in economic, financial and political consequences.” “I do not understand why the British government needs until October to decide whether to send the divorce letter to Brussels,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, told German television.
Mr. Ayrault warned that Mr. Cameron, who said in announcing his plans to quit that he was not the person to lead Britain through the withdrawal, will face “very strong” pressure to accelerate the process when European leaders meet in Brussels for a summit meeting on Tuesday. “I would like it immediately,” he said. “It is not an amicable divorce, but it was also not an intimate love affair.”
Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the bloc, sounded the same theme. The emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the European Union’s six founding states — Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands — revealed impatience and exasperation with Britain.
“It doesn’t make any sense to wait until October to try and negotiate the terms of their departure,” he said. “I would like to get started immediately.” The Europeans want Mr. Cameron to start the legal process of quitting by immediately invoking Article 50 of the bloc’s governing treaty, which sets guidelines for severing ties and provides for a two-year window for talks. But nothing in the treaty requires Britain to invoke the article until it chooses, since it remains a full member of the bloc, with all privileges and obligations, until it quits.
Representatives of the British campaign to leave the union expressed no urgency on Friday in beginning the two-year exit process by invoking Article 50 of the bloc’s governing treaty, which sets the guidelines for severing political and economic ties. The European Union has other considerable challenges, including the migrant crisis, Greece’s turbulent economy and sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. European leaders, looking at Spanish elections on Sunday and German and French elections next year, want the uncertainty around the British question resolved as soon as possible so they can try to show their own voters that Brussels is capable and on track.
But European officials warned that not triggering Britain’s separation from the bloc could saddle Europe with an unnecessary period of added unpredictability. But the British have to decide what they want in a future relationship with the European Union, given the disagreement among the Brexit leaders, who are not a government. Mr. Cameron, humiliated and an opponent of leaving, clearly has no desire to bear the burden of those negotiations — both internally, within the divided Conservative party, and externally, with other European leaders. His counterparts in Europe think he has damaged not only himself and his country, but also them, by energizing European populism and diminishing the bloc.
“If that doesn’t happen, and all of us here in Berlin agree, then it could be that we are faced with four months or more that will be a period of uncertainty,” said Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg. “We need clarity. The people have spoken.” The French are particularly impatient, with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault saying on Saturday that negotiations on Britain’s departure from the bloc should begin soon. He warned that Mr. Cameron will face “very strong” pressure to accelerate the process when European leaders meet on Tuesday in Brussels, where Mr. Cameron is expected to be asked to leave the room when the others discuss their plans. The Europeans are also expected to cancel Britain’s six-month presidency of the council, which was to begin in July 2017.
At the same time, the six foreign ministers seemed to acknowledge frustration among the bloc’s members and the need for concrete steps to restore faith in the union. There is confusion about Britain, too. Mr. Ayrault said Saturday that “they must designate a new prime minister, which would certainly require several days.” In fact, the process will be considerably longer, because Conservative lawmakers must first agree on a leadership contest and decide when it will be. That contest will involve numerous ballots of Conservative legislators to winnow down candidates to two, and then the 150,000 or so registered members of the party (who had joined at least three months ago, to prevent infiltration) will vote by mail.
“We discussed here our firm desire to hold Europe together, and that will be our first, joint task,” said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister. “This means using the chance, this turning point in the history of European integration, not only to reflect but to listen to one another.” Even so, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said at a news conference in Potsdam that it “shouldn’t take forever” for Britain to deliver formal notification of Article 50, “but I would not fight over a short period of time.”
Germany credits the European Union with forming the backbone of its postwar economic success and a framework for its peaceful reunification after the collapse of Communism in the former Soviet Union and its satellites. It is therefore eager to ensure that other member states do not follow the British example. Ms. Merkel, trying to be conciliatory in the face of facts, said that she was seeking an “objective, good” climate in talks on Britain’s exit, and that there was “no need to be particularly nasty in any way in the negotiations; they must be conducted properly.”
As if to highlight that point, the far-right People’s Party Our Slovakia said on Saturday that it had introduced a petition calling a referendum on membership in the bloc, which it called a “sinking European Titanic.” Already weakened politically by the migrant crisis, Ms. Merkel was expected to meet on Saturday with 20 top officials from her coalition government of center-right and center-left parties. But with elections coming, coalition unity is beginning to falter as the junior partner, the Social Democrats, seek to create their own profile for voters.
The decision by Britain to leave the bloc is a huge headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who was expected to meet with 20 top officials from her coalition government on Saturday. The situation in Britain was confused, too. The Scottish cabinet held an emergency meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday after the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said it was “democratically unacceptable” that Scotland should be removed from the European Union against its will.
Her coalition of center-right and center-left parties has been falling in popularity and is divided over how to respond to the large number of migrants who have come to Germany over the past year. Now, she is saddled with the added task of helping to shape the terms of Britain’s potentially acrimonious split from the bloc. Scotland voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining in the bloc, and Ms. Sturgeon, who leads the Scottish National Party that favors independence, reiterated after the meeting on Saturday that a second independence referendum was “highly likely.”
On Saturday, she showed signs that she was willing to be patient, at least to a point. “It shouldn’t take forever, that’s right,” she said at a news conference in Potsdam, “but I would not fight over a short period of time.” She said Scotland planned to enter discussions with European Union institutions and European governments to protect its place in the bloc. Ms. Sturgeon said she would establish an advisory panel on the legal, financial and diplomatic implications of the vote.
The Scottish cabinet held an emergency meeting in Edinburgh on Saturday after the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said a day earlier that it was “democratically unacceptable” that Scotland should be removed from the European Union against its will. As Mr. Cameron’s announced resignation sank in, speculation abounded that Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London and the most visible leader of the “Leave” campaign, was the favorite to replace him. But there were reports in British newspapers that Mr. Cameron and his deputy, George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, were eager to keep Mr. Johnson from profiting from what they considered to be his betrayal and that they were organizing support for Theresa May, the home secretary.
Scotland voted overwhelmingly in favor of remaining in the bloc, and Ms. Sturgeon reiterated after the meeting on Saturday that a second independence referendum remained “very much on the table.” The Labour Party was also in turmoil, with a leadership challenge being organized against Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-left legislator who was blamed for a halfhearted effort to keep Britain inside the European Union.
She said Scotland planned to enter discussions with European Union institutions and European governments to protect Scotland’s place in the bloc and its vast single market. In a speech in London on Saturday, Mr. Corbyn largely ignored the no-confidence effort. Instead, he told supporters that Labour would fight to ensure that its agenda was at the heart of discussions as Britain negotiated its exit from the bloc.
Ms. Sturgeon said she would establish an advisory panel on the legal, financial and diplomatic implications of the vote in the coming days. He mentioned the importance of employment protections and human rights, said the referendum had laid bare divisions in the country over immigration and underlined the despair of those hit by austerity measures.
The vote could also have lasting consequences for the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, after two lawmakers in the party submitted a motion of no-confidence against him. “Today it’s important we learn from what has taken place,” he said. Asked if he would run again if his leadership was challenged, he replied, “Yes, I am here.”
Mr. Corbyn had been criticized by many in his own party for what they viewed as a halfhearted and ineffective approach to campaigning for Britain to remain in the bloc. As markets plunged over the uncertainty, the credit ratings agency Moody’s lowered its outlook for the United Kingdom, citing the potential for weaker economic growth in the long, messy process of disentangling Britain from the European Union.
In a speech in London on Saturday, Mr. Corbyn largely ignored the no-confidence effort, saying only, “Yes, I am here,” when asked if he would run again if his leadership were challenged.
Instead, he told supporters that Labour would fight to ensure that its agenda was at the heart of discussions as Britain negotiates its exit from the European Union.
He cited the importance of employment protections and human rights, said that the referendum had laid bare divisions in the country over immigration, and underlined the despair of those hit by austerity.
In Brussels, Britain’s highest-ranking European Union official resigned on Saturday, one of the first tangible signs of the country’s withdrawal from the bloc.
That official, Jonathan Hill, a close ally of Mr. Cameron, was the commissioner for financial services. His appointment in 2014 was seen as a major success for Britain because of its interest in protecting the City of London, Europe’s financial capital, from potentially damaging European regulation.
The appointment of a Briton was also considered an canny move by Mr. Juncker to give Britain an added incentive to remain part of the European Union.
“As we move to a new phase, I don’t believe it is right that I should carry on as the British Commissioner as though nothing had happened,” Mr. Hill said in a statement.
Although the long-term economic consequences of a British exit from the European Union are unclear, the vote rattled global financial markets and economists warned that the “Remain” camp’s warnings of economic instability and a future recession were now a possibility.
The pound hit a 31-year low against the dollar on Friday. The fall is a boon for British exporters and could provide a fillip for the tourism industry, even as it will make European vacations for Britons far more expensive.
As markets plunged over the uncertainty, the credit ratings agency Moody’s lowered its outlook for the United Kingdom, citing the potential for weaker economic growth.
It could take years for Britain to disentangle itself from the European Union, with messy and protracted negotiations that are expected to weigh on confidence and investment in the country.
The sense of shock was particularly acute in London, a cosmopolitan city and an important financial center, which reacted to the vote with anger, disappointment and even tears.The sense of shock was particularly acute in London, a cosmopolitan city and an important financial center, which reacted to the vote with anger, disappointment and even tears.
“I was crying yesterday,” Camila Diehl, 26, who works for a cancer charity in London, said on Saturday. “I just can’t believe this is happening. This is not the country I know.” “I was crying yesterday,” Camila Diehl, 26, who works for a cancer charity in London, said Saturday. “I just can’t believe this is happening. This is not the country I know.”
Ms. Diehl, who has a Colombian mother and a British father, and who grew up in Paris, said she was worried about what the vote would mean for funding for scientific research. Ms. Diehl, who has a Colombian mother and a British father, said she was worried about what the vote would mean for funding for scientific research. She is now questioning her future in Britain, she said.
She is now questioning her future in Britain, she added. Mayor Sadiq Kahn, who supported “Remain,” took to Facebook on Friday, saying he wanted to “send a clear message to every European resident living in London — you are very welcome here.”
Mayor Sadiq Kahn took to Facebook on Friday, saying that he wanted to “send a clear message to every European resident living in London — you are very welcome here.” “There are nearly one million European citizens living in London today, and they bring huge benefits to our city — working hard, paying taxes, working in our public services and contributing to our civic and cultural life,” he wrote.
Regardless of his intentions, however, the London mayor has little power to determine immigration policies. A petition calling for London to vote to join the European Union has drawn more 100,000 signatures, while a separate online petition calling for a new referendum had the support of more than 1.7 million people as of late Saturday afternoon.
A petition calling for the capital to vote to join the European Union has already drawn more 100,000 signatures, while a separate petition calling for a new referendum had the support of more than 1,500,000 people as of Saturday afternoon. And in the latest consequence of Britain’s vote to withdraw from Brussels, Britain’s highest-ranking European Union official — Jonathan Hill, the commissioner for financial services — resigned on Saturday.