Berlin: No talks with UK on future until Article 50 triggered

Germany has said it will not negotiate with Britain about its future relationship with the EU until prime minister David Cameron, or his successor, begins to decouple Britain from the bloc by triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a delicate balancing act today in Berlin and tomorrow at a Brussels EU summit: taking a tough line with foot-dragging from London while de-escalating demands from EU member states for London’s immediate departure from the bloc. “We will keep to the right order,” said a senior Merkel adviser.

“First Britain registers its exit request in line with Article 50, then we talk. Before then there will be no informal talks.” The German leader will hold private talks with European Council president Donald Tusk this afternoon followed by a working dinner with Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi and French President, François Hollande - one of the loudest voices demanding Britain exit the EU without delay.

Amid similar demands from senior EU officials over the weekend, chancellor Angela Merkel insisted that, while activating Article 50 shouldn’t take forever, “there was no point falling out” with London over a matter of a few weeks. But she now plans to make clear to London that, while she is happy to give them a few weeks to get their affairs in order, she should not be seen as a soft touch either.

EU member states cannot force London to trigger Article 50 but, until it does, Dr Merkel will tell Mr Cameron they have nothing to discuss. Over the weekend, German officials expressed dismay over the apparent lack of haste from Leave campaigner Boris Johnson to leave the EU.

They are worried at a legal vacuum developing if, as the ruling Conservatives seem to believe, they can wait with a formal exit request until October. Peter Altmaier, Dr Merkel’s chief-of-staff, said Europe should wait for a new government in London to “sort itself out and, as the case may be, present its application”. “Politicians in London should have the opportunity to consider once again the consequences of an exit,” he said in an interview.

That caused a minor flurry of excitement, with suggestions that a senior Merkel ally hoped Britain would reconsider its EU departure once the consequences became clear.

His office later put out a statement clarifying that Mr Altmaier did not mean British politicians should rethink the Brexit decision itself. Senior Merkel allies confirmed on Sunday evening that they have no expectation that the Brexit vote can be reversed. Given how EU members will still have close contacts with Britain – through the G7, Nato and the UN – the German leader is hopeful that future talks with London must take place in a "good, business-like" atmosphere - and soon.

But that, German officials insist, requires give and take on all sides. Mr Hollande and Dr Merkel have insisted they are in “full agreement” on how to handle the fallout from the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.

Mr Hollande warned that “separated, we run the risk of divisions, dissension and quarrels”. But Europe’s centre-left Socialist camp, to which Mr Hollande belongs, has tried to seize the post-referendum political initiative. Mr Hollande, France’s Socialist president, set to meet in Berlin with Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrat (SPD) leader and deputy chancellor. SPD foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, meanwhile, presented on Saturday – without involving Dr Merkel’s office – a Franco-German EU reform paper calling for a “flexible union”.

Reheating the idea of a two-speed Europe, the 10-page paper talks of a need to recognise “different levels of ambition” towards integration around the continent. At the behest of the French, the document demands greater security spending and intelligence sharing. Germany’s fingerprints are visible on the assertion that “it is unsupportable for the burden of immigration to be unevenly shouldered by a limited number of member states”. Officials close to Dr Merkel are as dismissive of the paper as they are of demands to force Britain to activate its EU departure.

On Tuesday the European Parliament will consider a draft resolution brought by its four main groups calling on British prime minister David Cameron to formally notify the European Council of the referendum outcome at this week’S EU summit. “This notification will launch the withdrawal procedure,” the draft text says, adding that its swift implementation is necessary “to prevent damaging uncertainty for everyone and in order to protect the union’s integrity”.

Instead they are preparing for a difficult balancing act in the months ahead: finding a path to a future relationship with Britain that neither punishes the country for voting to leave the bloc nor appears to reward it either. Amid the Brexit fallout, the European parliament will tomorrow call for a shake-up of the EU’s rotating presidency. Although Britain is due to assume the six-month rotating EU presidency in July 2017, there is speculation that Estonia – due to assume the presidency in January 2018 – will take its place.

Amid Brexit timetable uncertainty, Britain’s EU Commissioner Jonathan Hill announced his resignation on Saturday. His surprise decision could signal that Britain may already be unwinding its presence in the EU institutions, although the financial services commissioner said he would remain in the role on a temporary basis to ensure an “orderly handover”. His financial services portfolio has been assigned to Latvian commissioner and vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis.