Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Austrian minister says UK will not leave EU. Juncker criticises 'sad heroes of Brexit'

Britain will not quit the European Union despite voting to do so in a 23 June referendum, Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling said in an interview published this morning.

"In five years there will still be 28 member states," Mr Schelling told German business daily Handelsblatt.

European leaders were discussing "all possibilities", from Britain remaining in the EU to sealing "a free trade agreement on the Swiss or Norwegian model", the former businessman said.

Mr Schelling said that the United Kingdom could break up, with Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the majority of the electorate voted to stay, remaining members of the EU while pro-Brexit England goes its own way.

In the historic vote, 52% of Britons voted to leave the EU and 48% voted to remain.

The country has since been plunged into political turmoil.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the 'Remain' campaign, has resigned and top figures in the 'Leave' campaign have also stepped down.

A leadership battle has also broken out in the opposition Labour party.

Some fellow EU members have pushed Britain to trigger exit proceedings immediately to ward off economic uncertainty, but there is no legal requirement for the government to do so.

President of the European Council Donald Tusk this morning tweeted that all 27 members of the EU are agreed that there will be no negotiations of any kind until the UK formally notifies its intention to withdraw from the bloc.

He also said that Europe brought hope for decades and it is the responsibility of the member countries to return to that.

Despite Brexit, he said, the EU cannot stand still. It is the bloc's duty to address the migration crisis, hybrid and cyber threats, EU-NATO co-operation and digital single market.


  • EU's Juncker criticises 'sad heroes of Brexit'

Elsewhere European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker sharply criticised politicians Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson as the "sad heroes" of Brexit who resigned instead of leading Britain through the EU exit they campaigned for.

"I would just note that the proud Brexit heroes of last week are now the sad heroes of Brexit," Mr Juncker told a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

"Johnson, Farage, they are retro-patriots. Patriots don't resign when things get difficult, they stay," he added...
 [rte.ie]
5/7/16
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