This Article is From Sep 23, 2016

UK Plans To Trigger Formal EU Exit Process In Early 2017: Boris Johnson

UK Plans To Trigger Formal EU Exit Process In Early 2017: Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson said that Britain plans to trigger Article 50 early next year.

London, United Kingdom: Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Thursday that Britain plans to trigger Article 50, the formal process for leaving the European Union, early next year.

"We are talking to our European friends and partners in the expectation that by the early part of next year you will see an Article 50 letter. We will invoke that," he told Britain's Sky News television in New York.

Prime Minister Theresa May has previously said only that Britain would not trigger Article 50 before the end of this year. 

Doing so would mark the formal start of a two-year negotiation period for Britain to leave the EU following its referendum vote in June to pull out of the 28-nation bloc.

But Johnson, who spearheaded the campaign for Brexit, indicated he did not think the negotiations would need the full two years to be completed.

"In that letter I am sure we will be setting out some parameters for how we propose to take this forward," he added.

"I don't think we will actually necessarily need to spend a full two years but let's see how we go."

Johnson also hit out at suggestions that Britain would have to continue to allow free movement of people with the EU if it wanted to maintain access to the European single market.

"They would have us believe that there is some automatic trade-off between what they call access to the single market and free movement. Complete baloney. Absolute baloney," he said.

"The two things have nothing to do with each other. We should go for a jumbo free-trade deal and take back control of our immigration policy."

Meanwhile in London, May was meeting with Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, who urged her to trigger Article 50 as soon as possible.

"This period of preparation is valuable for all concerned and while we are going to leave the European Union, we are not leaving Europe," said May as she welcomed him to her Downing Street office.

"And we want the EU to continue to be strong and have a close relationship with it, and I think that will be in both our interests."

Before the meeting, Schulz said in a statement that the final deal between Britain and the EU needed to be good for all sides, while the four freedoms of the single market -- goods, capital, services and persons -- were all equally important.

"The European Parliament favours the earliest possible triggering of Article 50," he said.

Schulz added that the parliament was "not the easiest partner" as 300-odd parties sit in it.
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