European Union leaders said the United Kingdom should leave the alliance as soon as possible, as the repercussions of the nation’s historic vote to leave the bloc continued to reverberate.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz told the Guardian that EU lawyers were examining if the triggering of Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty — the launch process to leave — could be sped up.
Uncertainty is “the opposite of what we need,” he told the paper.
In Thursday’s referendum, 52% voted to leave and 48% voted to remain. The result sent global markets into turmoil and forced Prime Minister David Cameron, who campaigned for “remain, to announce his resignation. Cameron said he will step down by October and that his successor would negotiate the process of leaving the EU and trigger Article 50.
“Britons decided yesterday that they want to leave the European Union, so it doesn’t make any sense to wait until October to try to negotiate the terms of their departure. I would like to get started immediately,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of theEuropean Commission — the EU’s executive body — told Germany’s ARD TV channel Friday.
The credit ratings provider Moody’s changed the U.K.’s credit outlook from stable to negative.
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2015 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
