The European Union will not hold its first Brexit summit until April 29th, a month after Theresa May triggers article 50, underlining how Britain will no longer be in control of the process.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, announced that he would call a summit on the last Saturday in April to allow the EU’s 27 remaining members to agree on Brexit guidelines, a broad-brush outline of the political principles that will guide them through the next two years of negotiations.

Ms May told a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the triggering of article 50 next Wednesday would be a “historic event and will precipitate a shift in our role in the world and see Britain begin a bold new chapter as a prosperous, open and global nation”.

Mr Tusk said: “I personally wish the UK hadn’t chosen to leave the EU, but the majority of British voters decided otherwise. Therefore we must do everything we can to make sure the process of divorce is the least painful for the EU.

“Our main priority for the negotiations must be to create as much certainty and clarity as possible for all citizens, companies and member states that will be negatively affected by Brexit.”

Negotiations

The British government confirmed on Monday that it would file its notice to leave the bloc, under article 50, on Wednesday March 29th. But negotiations may not begin until two months later, eating into the two-year negotiating period foreseen by the EU treaty.

Once Ms May hands in the notice to leave, the UK can be ejected from the EU without a deal on March 29th, 2019. The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said he envisages there being less than 18 months of real negotiating time. The crucial window is likely to be the year from October 2017, after the German elections. Mr Barnier said he hoped to begin the process of ratification by the European Parliament by October 2018.

Mr Tusk’s decision to hold the summit between the first and second rounds of the presidential elections in France will be unwelcome news to French officials. But Paris considers the late April timing to be better than after the second round on May 7th, when the French president-elect would find it difficult to make time for an EU summit.

Mr Tusk has promised to send EU diplomats the draft Brexit guidelines within 48 hours of receiving Ms May’s article 50 notice.

Brussels-based diplomats say officials from the 27 countries will then need a few weeks to respond to the notification and work on the guidelines. Once they are agreed, there will be a further period of intense technical work.

The guidelines will then be handed to the European commission to turn into more detailed negotiating texts. The commission’s text will be called the Brexit directives and will have to be signed off by EU affairs ministers in a qualified-majority vote, either in mid-May or mid-June.

New relationship

No 10 said the prime minister had told cabinet ministers that the letter would be “one of the most important documents in our country’s recent history and will start to deliver the result of the referendum and set the tone for our new relationship with Europe and the world”.

The content has not been finalised and was not discussed, the spokesman said. A meeting of cabinet will be held next Wednesday, the day of notification, to discuss the letter, he said.

During the meeting, Ms May stressed her desire to reach a swift agreement on the rights of EU citizens living in Britain and those of British citizens in the EU , the spokesman said, and praised the work of the cabinet sub-committee on exit and trade, calling it a “strong platform” from which to start negotiations.

Ms May said she expected negotiations to be “smooth and orderly, giving certainty to individuals and businesses and allowing us to make preparation that will see an independent UK prospering outside the EU”.

A white paper on the great repeal bill , which will migrate existing EU laws directly into British law after the UK leaves the union, is expected to be published by David Davis shortly after the letter is sent next week.

– (Guardian service)