Brexit ‘nightmare’

Europe wakes up to Brexit ‘nightmare’

The U.K.’s decision to leave prompts shock and soul-searching among EU leaders. 

By Maïa de La Baume and Tara Palmeri

European politicians and officials expressed shock, sadness and even defiance Friday over the results of the U.K. referendum on EU membership, after waking up to what one of them called a “nightmare.”

Even as the vote’s outcome was seen as a serious blow to the EU, many politicians also tried to spin it as a “U.K. problem,” and said the Union was ready to move on without the British.

“There is no hiding the fact that we wanted a different outcome,” European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters after the vote results became official. “It’s a historic moment, but for sure, it’s not a moment for hysterical reactions.”

Added Tusk, “I want to reassure everyone that we are prepared also for this negative scenario. As you know, the EU is not only a fair-weather project.”

But other European political leaders were more emotional, even as they strained to put the vote in perspective.

“We are entering in turbulent times,” said Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, adding that he was “very sad” about the result. He said the Parliament would play “an active role” in the next steps, including the legal and procedural moves necessitated by a Brexit.

“I am sad,” Manfred Weber, president of the center-right European People’s Party, the Parliament’s largest political group, told POLITICO. “But I think it is first of all a problem for British people,” noting that the British pound lost 30 percent of its value overnight, while the euro was “stable.”

“The Brits have always benefited from a special treatment, they decided to leave, it’s up to them now,” Weber said.

“I am really in anguish,” said Gianni Pittella, leader of the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. “It is a legitimate decision but it is upsetting because it is not based on real motives, and they will realize this very soon.”

Alex Stubb, a Finnish member of parliament and former prime minister and finance minister, reacted more dramatically in a tweet: “Please tell me I’m still sleeping and this is all just a bad nightmare.”

Finland’s current leader, Juha Sipilä, said in a statement that the “European Union must quickly assess the implications of the referendum result.”

Other European politicians, such as Marc Tarabella, a Belgian socialist MEP, called the result of the vote a “failure” for the EU — a line that echoed the victory proclamation of Nigel Farage, the British MEP from the U.K. Independence Party and one of the leaders of the Brexit movement.

“The European project no longer convinces people,” said Tarabella.

The European Parliament plans to hold an extraordinary plenary session on Tuesday, according to Pittella, who added that MEPs should “relaunch proposals on growth, political integration in the economical and financial field, security, migratory policies.”

European leaders will also hold a pre-scheduled summit Tuesday and Wednesday, which Tusk said should include a “wider reflection” on the future of the EU.

After months spent hashing out a reform settlement aimed at keeping Britain in the bloc by giving it, among other things, the ability to restrict benefits to EU migrants, many European officials expressed disillusionment with the results.

Tomas Prouza, the Czech state secretary for EU affairs, who worked on the U.K. settlement as a spokesperson and advisor representing the Visegrád group of Eastern European countries, blamed xenophobic and nationalist forces for the outcome of the vote.

“I am sad that fearmongering has won over reason and willingness to face the world together,” Prouza said. “However, we need to fully respect the result and have a thorough soul-searching on how to make Europe understandable to the people. Many have lost faith across the EU, preferring nationalists and xenophobes, and we need to work very hard to explain why Europe still makes sense.”

Liberal Group leader Guy Verhofstadt echoed this sentiment, saying the results should be “a wake up call for another and reformed European Union.”

But while some have argued the result means people want less European integration, Verhofstadt said he believes the future of the EU requires more political unity.

“A monetary union without a political union will simply not work,” he said.

Other officials in the European Parliament said they fear the results will cause an “earthquake” that reverberates in other countries where Euroskeptic forces are on the rise.

Several Euroskeptic leaders, including France’s Marine Le Pen and the Netherland’s Geert Wilders, immediately called for votes in their countries on EU membership.

“This is major disaster for parliamentary democracy, people don’t believe in it anymore,” said Pedro Lopez de Pablo, spokesperson for the EPP Group. “We have always given the U.K. what they wanted at the rhythm that they wanted. Now we can finally do better.”

European Conservatives and Reformists leader Syed Kamall, a Brexit supporter who like all British MEPs will soon be out of a job, said on Friday morning “we respect this democratic choice.”

Schulz said on German television that he expected British Prime Minister David Cameron to activate Article 50 — the clause in the Lisbon Treaty that maps out the procedure for a country to exit the EU — next week.

According a Parliament official, the European Parliament has prepared a draft asking the U.K. to trigger Article 50 “now.” The document also says that the EU-U.K. deal signed in February is “dead.”

“There will be no negotiation on which relationship the U.K. will have with the EU before it officially leaves,” the official said.

On Friday, Schulz met with the other leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups in Brussels.

Schulz met with Tusk, Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the Commission later in the morning, and the quartet issued a joint statement promising to “stand strong and uphold the EU’s core values of promoting peace and the well-being of its peoples.”

Officials in national capitals say there will be a lot of work ahead dealing with the split. One senior EU diplomat predicted that the talks will be “very messy.”

Throughout the morning, grim-faced MEPs and their assistants and other aides wandered the corridors of the European Parliament in Brussels in disbelief and surprise. Some, however, sought to make a public show that Europe could move on.

An assistant to German socialist MEP Jo Leinen, rushed alongside his boss carrying a banner which read: “A new start 4 Europe.” Many other assistants carried similar banners giving the impression that they wanted to downplay the consequences of the British vote.

Elsewhere in the Parliament’s building, leaders of all the assembly’s political groups gave press conferences to react to the outcome of the referendum to a predominantly British reporting crowd. Many officials of the European Parliament said they had barely slept during the night, before waking up in horror at the final result.

The question now is how the bloc can move forward. Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told POLITICO it was “Time to make the EU more effective again where it needs to be relevant: digital market, energy union, migration, security.”

De Croo added: “With or without you U.K.”