Gathered at the extraordinary summit in Brussels, the 27 unanimously adopted the guidelines for the negotiations with London on Brexit, which will then officially start only after the formation of the new British government following the early vote on 8 June. This was announced on Twitter by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk.
Members opted for a hard line, as hinted by French President Hollande, who said Brexit will come at a "cost" for the UK, which will find itself in a "worse" condition than it is now , and assured that the 27 "will defend their interests" in the negotiations.
According to the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, "sometimes I have the impression that our British friends, even if not all of them, really underestimate the technical difficulties we have to face".
“The question of citizens' rights alone – continues Juncker – is actually a plethora of twenty-five different problems that need to be solved. This will take time and, if we are to be precise and give guarantees to citizens, this will take an enormous amount of time, even though we have already adopted the text with Michel Barnier, which could be adopted immediately if our British friends were ready to sign it as 'is, which probably won't happen'.
