UK: Time has finally come for Theresa May to trigger Article 50 - TDS

Research Team at TDS points out that the time has finally come for Theresa May to trigger Article 50, kicking off a two-year negotiating period with the rest of the European Union (EU27).

Key Quotes

“A letter will be hand-delivered at 12:30pm BST today by Sir Tim Barrow (the UK’s Permanent Representative to the EU in Brussels) to European Council President Donald Tusk. The UK’s letter is unlikely to contain much new information beyond what has already been published by the government, but it’s possible we will get a brief EC response ahead of a more full-fledged response later this week.”

“As the negotiation phase begins, progress will initially be quite slow—the EU27 leaders won’t meet to discuss their negotiating strategy until the end of April. Both sides are likely to lay out quite firm views in the early days of negotiations before gradually working towards a more constructive middle-ground from where both parties will be able to claim victory.”

“We don’t expect much impact on GBP today from this act, as the UK government has heavily trailed this action.”