European Union leaders will deliver a stark message to Britain on Friday morning that while they are sorry the UK has voted to leave, the separation must now happen quickly.

Senior EU government officials have told BuzzFeed News that the response to the vote is designed to make clear that the rest of the Europe is unwilling to let the Brexit process fester or to agree any new concessions for Britain.

Asked about the possibility of further concessions from the EU, one senior official said: "What would concessions mean? 'Please do stay, we'll let you blackmail us any time you see fit?'"



Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, spoke on Friday morning. His message could be summarised as: "We're sorry that Britain has voted this way, it's not what we wanted, but life goes on."

Tusk confirmed that the EU's 27 heads of state and government will meet on Tuesday – without the UK – at the margins of the scheduled Council to agree next steps.

The message that the 27 will send to Britain will be "put your house in order, but after that we want to move on rapidly", officials told BuzzFeed News.



A hard line was immediately rolled out on Friday morning, first by the largest group in the European parliament, Angela Merkel’s EPP:

