Official reaction on the continent to the high court’s ruling on article 50 has been muted, with national governments and the European commission regarding the decision as an internal matter.

Privately, however, EU diplomats said they were worried the British court’s decision – that the UK government could not start Brexit without parliament’s approval – might complicate the process and cause unwelcome delay.



A spokesman for the commission said its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, would discuss the Brexit process with Theresa May, the UK prime minister, at her request in a phone call on Friday, but declined to comment on the ruling.



The EU’s executive “will not comment on any issues that pertain to the internal legal and constitutional order of our member states”, he said, adding that all remaining EU members would like to see a swift notification of article 50 and any agreement would require the consent of the European parliament.

EU diplomats in Brussels and London said it was not immediately clear what the decision would mean for the bloc’s remaining members. “This wasn’t about whether article 50 will be invoked, but how,” said one.

Another EU government official said: “This may complicate things for the prime minister, but she has said the Brexit timetable will not be affected. For the EU-27, we must still wait to hear what Britain wants.”

EU-27 governments and the Brussels institutions have been increasingly tough on the bloc’s negotiating position but have stressed since the referendum that while they regret the vote the will of the British electorate must be respected.



Markets and sterling responded favourably to the ruling, with traders and investors apparently hopeful it could delay the Brexit process or make it harder for the government to push through a hard Brexit.

But some diplomats said member states would be concerned that May’s promise to trigger article 50 before April 2017 might not now be kept, stressing any delay in the exit process would not be welcome.

“The most important thing is that we keep on track with the timetable,” a diplomat said, adding that it seemed possible MPs might now seek to put conditions on May’s negotiating remit. “It makes something that was already very complicated even more complicated.”

One official said parliamentary scrutiny could “slow things down a lot, which would not be good news”, and another added: “We all know that involving parliaments in complicated, detailed, negotiations is not the smoothest way to go.”

Keen to avoid uncertainty and instability in the bloc, the EU-27 have said since the referendum in June that Britain should leave as soon as practically possible – although it was accepted that London needs time to define its position.

The EU is also eager to get the formal two-year article 50 leaving process started before the spring, both to avoid clashes with potentially difficult elections in France, Germany and the Netherlands later in 2017 and to ensure Britain is out before the next European elections in spring 2019.

It has also repeatedly made clear than Britain will not be allowed to “cherry pick” and cannot expect to enjoy EU rights, such as special access to the single market, without obligations such as people’s freedom of movement.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said on Wednesday that she hoped the negotiations would not lead to friction between the UK and the EU, but that the EU’s “four freedoms” – movement of goods, services, capital and labour – were non-negotiable and had to form the basis for Brexit talks.

Some EU politicians, however, were less reluctant to pass comment on the court’s judgment. “The high court’s decision is a victory for parliamentary democracy in Britain,” said Axel Schäfer, deputy chair of Germany’s Social Democratic party.

“The attempt to smuggle such a momentous decision past parliament has luckily been stopped by the court. Now … Labour and Liberal Democrats would do well to say no to a calamitous exit from the EU during the parliamentary debates.”

The leader of the anti-migrant, anti-EU, Northern League party in Italy said the decision demonstrated a lack of democracy. “Britons have voted and what matters for me is the vote of the people,” said Matteo Salvini. “This position surprises me – but I don’t think it will change anything.”

But Mercedes Bresso, an Italian MEP in the Democratic party led by the prime minister, Matteo Renzi, welcomed the court’s decision. “I have always thought the [UK] parliament should be involved, just as the European parliament is involved from the side of the EU,” she said. “For me, this is democracy.”

She said it was possible Brexit would not happen due to the decision, but that although the vote had been close she believed parliament would “probably respect the decision of the people”.