Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, Mark Rutte, holder of the rotating presidency of the council of the EU, and Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission said they rule out the possibility of renegotiation of the deal recently hammered out by outgoing prime minister David Cameron.
“As agreed, the “New Settlement for the United Kingdom within the European Union”, reached at the European Council on 18-19 February 2016, will now not take effect and ceases to exist. There will be no renegotiation,” they said.
Going further, the statement said: “We will stand strong and uphold the EU’s core values of promoting peace and the well-being of its peoples. The Union of 27 Member States will continue. The Union is the framework of our common political future. We are bound together by history, geography and common interests and will develop our cooperation on this basis.”
With respect to the steps from here, it said it stands ready to launch negotiations swiftly with the United Kingdom regarding the terms and conditions of its withdrawal. But UK prime minister David Cameron, who plans to hang on in office until October, today said he has no plans to invoke Article 50, which sets out the terms for leaving the European Union. This is in strong contradiction with his earlier promise to start do so immediately after a vote to leave.
But, it reiterated: “Until this process of negotiations is over, the United Kingdom remains a member of the European Union, with all the rights and obligations that derive from this. According to the Treaties which the United Kingdom has ratified, EU law continues to apply to the full to and in the United Kingdom until it is no longer a Member.”
