Congratulating Theresa May for continuing as British PM after the just concluded general election, European Council President Donald Tusk on Friday said that Brussels and London should press ahead with the Brexit talks.
Instead, her party lost seats in the elections, down from 330 to 318. Yet with the result from Thursday's United Kingdom election, which left no single party with a majority, it is anyone's guess when and how the country will be ready to start the talks. "The public said no thanks, we don't want a second referendum on Europe, we don't want to stay in Europe, we want you to do a good deal".
"As far as the Commission is concerned we can open negotiations tomorrow morning at half past nine", Juncker said jokingly on Friday.
Hardly had the votes been counted in Britain's indecisive election, in which no party got an outright parliamentary majority, than politicians took to airwaves and tapped away on Twitter to spin what the result meant.
Meanwhile the Leave.EU campaign said Mrs May "arrogantly gambled with our Brexit and blew it" and called for fresh leadership.
May confirmed Friday afternoon she will form a Westminster government, helped by members of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
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"We do not know when Brexit talks start".
Donald Tusk, the former Polish premier who will oversee the process as chair of European Union national leaders' summits, also stressed there was "no time to lose" and a need for London and Brussels to cooperate to minimise disruption for people, businesses and governments across Europe when Britain walks out in 22 months.
While the other 27 states would quite possibly be willing to extend to Britain the same kind of access to EU markets they offer to Norway or Switzerland, they have made clear that would mean Britain continuing to pay into the EU budget and obey EU rules, including on free migration across the bloc, while no longer having any say in how the Union's policies are set. Bohuslav Sobotka said that too much time had already been wasted.
European Union leaders expressed concern that May's loss of her majority would raise the risk of negotiations failing, resulting in a legal limbo for people and business.
"It's very hard to see how you can strike a reasonable outcome without another election and a stronger mandate for the negotiating team in Britain, whoever that may be", he said. We know when they must end.
Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, who is president of the Alliance of Liberals & Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, had caustic words for Mrs May.
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