Image copyright EPA Image caption Theresa May met European Council president Donald Tusk last week in London

UK Prime Minister Theresa May is likely to trigger the formal process of leaving the European Union early next year, according to a top EU official.

European Council President Donald Tusk said Mrs May had told him the UK could be ready to begin talks by February.

The BBC's Tom Bateman says this is the clearest sign yet of when the two-year withdrawal process may start.

Mrs May's office said it would not be launched this year, but did not confirm Mr Tusk's account.

Formal negotiations over the withdrawal cannot begin until the UK triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the formal mechanism for leaving the union.

The timing of the process has so-far been clouded by uncertainty, with no clear signal from Mrs May's government on when it would begin.

There is also confusion over the nature of the the UK's future relationship with the bloc, especially whether it intends to remain a member of the single market.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday that the European Union was in a "critical situation" as EU leaders met

Mr Tusk spoke from the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, where Europe's 27 other leaders are gathered for an informal summit without the UK.

Speaking about a meeting with the British PM in London last week, Mr Tusk said: "Prime Minister May was very open and honest with me.

"She declared that it's almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year but it's quite likely that they will be ready maybe in January maybe in February next year."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker insisted that the UK could not get access to the single market without accepting the free movement of workers.

Mrs May has indicated that in any negotiations, her government would insist on placing curbs on EU citizens entering the UK.

'High-wire act'

Our correspondent says invoking Article 50 early next year may be ambitious, as the prime minister has made clear she she wants time to prepare the best deal for Britain.

During the Bratislava summit, the 27 remaining members states unveiled a six-month "road map" of measures designed to restore public confidence in the EU.

But rifts over the record influx of refugees and migrants were on display as soon as the meeting ended.

Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, said: "I'm not satisfied with the conclusions on growth or on immigration.

"To define as a step forward today's document on migrants would require a form of fantasy, a verbal high-wire act." </s> Theresa May will trigger EU withdrawal talks under Article 50 on March 29, Downing Street has announced.

The Prime Minister's letter officially notifying the European Council of the UK's intention to quit will set in train a two-year negotiation process expected to lead to Britain leaving the EU on March 29 2019.

Britain's ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, informed the office of European Council president Donald Tusk on Monday morning of the Prime Minister's plans.

The announcement means that Mrs May will meet her self-imposed deadline of the end of March to get the withdrawal process under way.

She was cleared to take the step when the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act gained royal assent last week, after a Supreme Court ruling forced her to seek the approval of both Houses of Parliament.

Mrs May will address MPs in a statement to the House of Commons following her regular weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions on March 29.

Mr Tusk has previously said he expects to release an initial response to the Article 50 notification within 48 hours, and an extraordinary summit of the remaining 27 EU member states is due to be called within four to six weeks.

That summit will draw up a mandate for the European Commission's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, probably allowing talks to begin in earnest in May.

Notification of the historic step will come in the form of a letter from the Prime Minister to Mr Tusk, though Downing Street did not make clear whether this would be a physical letter handed to the European Council president by a UK representative or might be sent electronically.

It will be the first time that the provisions of Article 50 - which sets out the process for any EU member state "to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements" - have been activated.

Notification comes 279 days after the referendum of June 23 last year delivered a 52%-48% majority in favour of withdrawal.

Mrs May, who was visiting Swansea on Monday, is expected to conduct visits in all four nations of the UK before notification takes place.

The PM's official spokesman said: "Earlier this morning, the UK Permanent Representative to the EU informed the office of Donald Tusk that it is the UK's intention to trigger Article 50 on March 29.

"There will be a letter. She will notify President Tusk in writing. The Prime Minister will give a statement to Parliament as well.

"We have always been clear that we will trigger by the end of March and we have met that timetable."

The spokesman said Britain wanted to start withdrawal negotiations "promptly", but accepts that "it is right that the 27 have a chance to agree their position" before talks start. </s> SALZBURG, Austria (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk said on Wednesday he would call an extra Brexit summit of European Union leaders around mid-November to finalize a deal with Britain.

Tusk told a news conference before chairing a summit of all 28 EU leaders in the Austrian city of Salzburg later on Wednesday:

“The Brexit negotiations are entering their decisive phase. Various scenarios are still possible today but I’d like to stress that some of Prime Minister May’s proposals from Chequers indicated positive evolution in the UK’s approach.”

Tusk said that went for the UK’s readiness to work closely with the EU on security and foreign policy after Brexit but stressed that Chequers proposals from premier Theresa May for the future Irish border and economic cooperation between the EU and Britain “will need to reworked and further negotiated”.

“Today there is perhaps more hope but there is surely less and less time,” Tusk added. “Every day that is left we must use for talks. I’d like to finalize them still this autumn,” he said. He would propose that the EU leaders hold another extra summit on Brexit around mid-November. </s> EU's Tusk: May indicated could trigger Brexit talks in Jan-Feb

BRATISLAVA, Sept 16 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May has signalled that she could be ready to launch formal Brexit negotiations in January or February next year, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Friday, citing a recent talk with May.

The prime minister herself has ruled out giving formal notification this year of Britain's intention to leave the European Union under Article 50 of the EU treaty.

But beyond that, she has been vague about when her government might trigger the process, which would set in motion a two-year countdown to Britain's exit.

"Prime Minister May was very open and honest with me," Tusk said of his visit to London on Sept. 8.

"She declared it's almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year but it's quite likely that they will be ready maybe in January, maybe in February next year."

The remarks in English by the former Polish premier left open whether May had indicated she would launch the process then or would simply be in a position to do so, having secured agreement in her cabinet on what Britain wants to achieve and having set up the negotiating teams London will need to deal with Brussels.

Tusk said the other 27 EU leaders, whose summit he chaired on Friday in Bratislava to plot a course ahead for the bloc after the shock of Britain's June referendum to quit were being patient for now: "Our British colleagues need more time to prepare themselves for these negotiations," he told reporters.

"We are well prepared for these negotiations and we could in fact start these procedures even tomorrow," he added, saying that the EU's goal was "the closest possible future relations" with Britain while negotiating in the interests of the bloc.

Senior officials in Brussels and national capitals say they are very anxious that Britain complete its divorce by mid-2019. Failure to hit that deadline would complicate elections to the European Parliament and the appointment of a new EU executive, the Commission, that year as well as hobble negotiations on a new seven-year EU budget.

However, Britain is wary of triggering Article 50 because this could weaken its leverage. It would then be at the mercy of an extremely tight two-year timeline to negotiate the divorce, risking a loss of preferential access to its main export market.

Although the summit was called in the wake of the June 23 vote in Britain, the forthcoming negotiations with London were "not a major topic" for the leaders in Bratislava, Tusk said.

EU leaders are waiting to hear from May on what she wants and Tusk repeated the mantra that there could be "no negotiations before notification".

Some governments, notably among London's traditional northern allies appear more willing to offer May some guidance on what new relations they might accept before she triggers Article 50, whereas France and others are reluctant to engage until Britain commits itself to a deadline.

The government in Paris, facing elections next spring in which the anti-EU National Front is leading in opinion polls, does not want to given voters the impression that leaving the bloc might be beneficial.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the same news conference that Britain could not achieve full access to the EU market that it would ideally like if it closed off free immigration for EU citizens: "I cannot see any possibility of compromising on that very issue," he said.

Summit host Robert Fico, the Slovak prime minister, also underlined that he and other east European leaders whose citizens make up much of the EU immigrant population in Britain would not let those people become "second class citizens". (Reporting by Alastair Macdonald; @macdonaldrtr; Editing by Noah Barkin) </s> EU chief says start of Brexit talks "likely" early next year

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — European Union President Donald Tusk is predicting that Britain will trigger the start of its exit negotiations from the bloc early next year.

Tusk said following an EU summit held without Britain that he had met recently with British Prime Minister Theresa May, who told him it was not going to happen as soon as many EU leaders had hoped after the June 23 referendum to leave the EU.

Tusk said Friday that "she declared that it is almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year," referring to the rule that covers exit negotiations. "But it is quite likely that they will ready maybe in January, maybe in February next year."

The 27 other EU leaders started talks on Friday on how to revamp the EU. </s> Claims that Theresa May told one of Brussels' most senior figures she wants to trigger the formal process to pull Britain out of the European Union early next year are an “interpretation” of their conversation, a Downing Street source has said.

The European Council president Donald Tusk said the Prime Minister had told him during talks at No 10 last week that it was “quite likely” she would be ready to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty “maybe in January, maybe in February” 2017.

But a Downing Street source said Mrs May did not specifically mention January or February at the meeting and that Mr Tusk's comments were an interpretation of their conversation.

The PM “recognises the need to deliver on the public verdict without delay”, the source added.

With Britain's withdrawal clouded in confusion and no clear signal on whether the country intends to stay in the single market or not, Europe's 27 other leaders gathered on Friday for an informal summit in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, without the PM.

Speaking about his meeting with Mrs May, Mr Tusk told a summit press conference: “Prime Minister May was very open and honest with me.

“She declared that it's almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year but it's quite likely that they will be ready maybe in January maybe in February next year.”

Formal negotiations between the UK and the EU cannot begin until she starts the two-year process, which Brexit Secretary David Davis has insisted will be triggered without a parliamentary vote.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon vowed to block any proposals for an EU army while Britain remains a member of the union, in a move likely to anger European leaders.

In his state of the union address on Wednesday, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called for EU countries “to pool their defence capabilities in the form of a permanent structured co-operation”, and proposed a European Defence Fund by the end of the year.

But Sir Michael said the UK would veto plans for any EU army that may rival Nato, as long as the country remained a member of the union.

“That is not going to happen,” he told The Times. “We are full members of the EU and we will go on resisting any attempt to set up a rival to Nato.

“We have always been concerned about unnecessarily duplicating what we already have in Nato.”

But former Liberal Democrat leader Lord (Menzies) Campbell said there was nothing the UK can do after Brexit to protect Nato from the potentially damaging effect of an EU army because it will not be able to veto its creation from outside the union.

The peer, who is a member of the UK parliamentary delegation to the Nato Assembly, said: “Even as a fervent European, I regard the creation of a European army as a deeply damaging, long-term threat to Nato.

“The cornerstone of European defence is Nato, of which the United States is the most senior partner contributing 75% of the budget of the alliance.

“The creation of a European army will only encourage isolationists in the United States to argue that Europe should be responsible for its own defence.

“At a time when few of the Nato countries can meet the minimum requirement of 2% of GDP defence expenditure, parallel headquarters and staff make no sense whatsoever. ”

In Bratislava, Mr Juncker insisted Britain cannot get access to the European single market without accepting the free movement of workers.

The conundrum has become central to the Brexit debate and has caused friction within the Government as ministers weigh up how to maintain the benefits of the trading bloc while regaining full control of the UK's borders - a goal deemed by Mrs May as essential to properly implement the referendum result.

Mr Juncker said: “There's a clear interlink as we made clear since the very beginning between the access to the internal market and the basic principles of the internal market, mainly the one of the freedom of movement of workers.

“We are sticking to that position and this is not a game between prime ministers leaving and prime ministers remaining, this is about people in Europe.

“It's about the rights of ordinary people and workers, of those living in Europe, and so I can't see any possibility of compromising on that very issue.” </s> European Council President Donald Tusk said the European Union and Britain have agreed on a draft declaration on the future of their political relations after Brexit.

Referring to a text discussed on Wednesday by British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Tusk said in a tweet Thursday: "The Commission president has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators' level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the leaders."

Tusk, who chairs meetings of EU leaders, says he has sent the draft political declaration to the U.K.'s 27 European partners.

"The declaration establishes the parameters of an ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership across trade and economic cooperation" and other areas, according to a copy of the document seen by French Press Agency (AFP).

He says the draft declaration still requires "the endorsement of the leaders."

EU leaders are due to meet in Brussels on Sunday to rubber-stamp the declaration and a separate divorce deal.

May will make a statement on Brexit to parliament at 1430 GMT on Thursday, the opposition Labour Party said on Twitter. </s> PM could start formal Brexit process by February, Donald Tusk says

Theresa May has declared that she wants to begin the formal process of leaving the European Union early next year, according to one of Brussels' leading figures.

European Council president Donald Tusk said the Prime Minister told him during their meeting at Downing Street last week that she would be ready to trigger Article 50 to begin Brexit by February 2017.

Formal negotiations between the UK and the EU cannot begin until she starts the two year process, which Brexit Secretary David Davis has insisted will be triggered without a parliamentary vote.

With Britain's withdrawal clouded in confusion and no clear signal on whether the country intends to stay in the single market or not, Europe's 27 other leaders gathered for an informal summit in the Slovakian capital, Bratislava, without the Prime Minister.

Speaking about his meeting with the PM, Mr Tusk told a summit press conference: "Prime Minister May was very open and honest with me.

"She declared that it's almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year but it's quite likely that they will be ready maybe in January maybe in February next year."

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon vowed to block any proposals for an EU army while Britain remains a member of the union in a move likely to anger European leaders.

In his state of the union address on Wednesday, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called for EU countries "to pool their defence capabilities in the form of a permanent structured co-operation", and proposed a European Defence Fund by the end of the year.

But Sir Michael said the UK would veto plans for any EU army that may rival Nato.

"That is not going to happen," he told The Times. "We are full members of the EU and we will go on resisting any attempt to set up a rival to Nato.

"We have always been concerned about unnecessarily duplicating what we already have in Nato."

In Bratislava, Mr Juncker insisted Britain cannot get access to the European single market without accepting the free movement of workers.

The conundrum has become central to the Brexit debate and has caused friction within the Government as ministers weigh up how to maintain the benefits of the trading bloc while regaining full control of the UK's borders - a goal deemed by Mrs May as essential to properly implement the referendum result.

The PM slapped down Mr Davis for saying it was "very improbable" that the UK could be in the single market and end free movement, and then insisted the Government would not offer a "running commentary" on negotiations.

Commenting on the issue, Mr Juncker told the press conference: "There's a clear interlink as we made clear since the very beginning between the access to the internal market and the basic principles of the internal market, mainly the one of the freedom of movement of workers.

"We are sticking to that position and this is not a game between prime ministers leaving and prime ministers remaining, this is about people in Europe.

"It's about the rights of ordinary people and workers, of those living in Europe, and so I can't see any possibility of compromising on that very issue." </s> The UK could begin the formal process of leaving the European Union early next year, European Council President Donald Tusk said.

Following the referendum result in June, no specific date has yet been given for when the government will trigger article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to begin the withdrawal from the bloc.

But at an informal EU summit in Bratislava, Mr Tusk said Prime Minister Theresa May had told him she expects to begin the process in early 2017.

He said: “Prime Minister May was very open and honest with me.

“She declared that it's almost impossible to trigger Article 50 this year, but it's quite likely that they will be ready maybe in January, maybe in February, next year.”

He admitted Britain’s vote to leave was a “sad moment” for Europe, but said Brexit negotiations must prioritise the interests of the countries that remain members of the EU and “not the leaving country”, Sky News reported.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker also set out his position on the forthcoming Brexit talks at the summit.

He said there was no possibility of the UK gaining access to the single market without accepting the free movement of people.

“There is a clear interlink as we made clear at the very beginning between the access to the internal market and the basic principles of the internal market – namely the free movement of workers and we are sticking to that position," he said.

“This is not a game between prime ministers leaving and prime ministers remaining, this is about people in Europe. So I cannot see any possibility of compromising on that very issue.

“We want to have very good, very close relation with the UK. At the same time, it is not possible for these negotiations to damage our interests.”

Speaking earlier, Mr Tusk told European leaders the UK’s referendum result was due to “failures” of British politicians.

He said national leaders had a responsibility to the EU, saying: “It also means refraining from the constant accusations aimed at the Union, which sometimes are justified, but more often than not they serve as an easy excuse for one's own failures.

“This was also one of the reasons behind the Brexit vote.”
President of the European Council Donald Tusk states that the UK could begin its formal process of withdrawing from the European Union early next year, after a meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May last week.