CRI听力:UK pulls the trigger for Brexit

The UK has pulled the trigger for Brexit by delivering the Article 50 letter to the European Council on Wednesday, beginning a two year negotiation process with the remaining 27 EU member states.

Nine months after the UK voted to leave the European Union in a historical referendum, the country has now officially begun to negotiate its way out of the bloc.

In her statement to parliament on Wednesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May says "there is no turning back".

"A few minutes ago in Brussels, the United Kingdom's Permanent Representative to the EU handed a letter to the President of the European Council on my behalf, confirming the Government's decision to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. The Article 50 process is now underway. And in accordance with the wishes of the British People, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union. This is an historic moment from which there can be no turning back. Britain is leaving the European Union."

Meanwhile, in a press conference in Brussels, Donald Tusk, President of the European Council said that it was a sad day both in Brussels and in London.

"I will not pretend that I am happy today. Paradoxically there is also something positive in Brexit. Brexit has made us, the community of 27, more determined and more united than before. I am fully confident of this, especially after the Rome Declaration. And today I can say that we will remain determined and united also in the future, for the difficult negotiations ahead."

Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty gives both sides two years to reach an agreement and unless the UK and the 27 remaining EU member states agree to extend the deadline for talks, the UK will leave on March 29th 2019.

Speaking about the timing of the likely negotiation process, Professor Alex de Ruyter, Director of the Centre for Brexit Studies at Birmingham City University, said that with the impending French Presidential elections and the German Federal elections coming up over the next few months, it is likely that no real discussions over Britain's withdrawal from the EU will take place until after November this year 钬?when a new German government is in place.

"This will mean that the UK government will most likely only have about ten months to conduct serious negotiations over Brexit. It is possible that we would be looking at a 'hard Brexit' by April 2019. A 'hard Brexit' in a sense that activating Article 50 will mean that we will in all likelihood have to leave the single market and the European Customs Union. And hence there is a need for the UK to secure as preferential access to the single market and the Customs Union as possible. "

It is reported that the UK government will publish a 'Great Repeal Bill' on Thursday, which will incorporate all existing EU legislations into UK laws and allow parliament to decide over a period of time whether to amend or repeal certain legislation.