European Parliament set to turn up heat on Britain

MEPs will vote on a resolution Tuesday calling for the UK to begin Brexit negotiations ‘immediately.’

The European Parliament is expected to add its voice to those calling on Britain to begin its withdrawal from the EU immediately to end uncertainty after the U.K. referendum, according to a draft resolution to be voted on Tuesday.

The non-binding resolution “on the decision to leave the EU resulting from the U.K. referendum” will be the centerpiece of a special session the European Parliament planned as the Brexit vote approached. By adopting it, MEPs would join a chorus of EU governments and leaders, including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, in calling for the Brexit process to begin without delay.

That would require the U.K. to formally request an exit by triggering Article 50 of the EU treaties, but British Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday he would leave that decision to his successor, who is not likely to be named until September.

Agreed by the main political groups in the Parliament, the draft resolution aims to “rush for the deal and end uncertainty,” said Danuta Hübner, a Polish MEP who chairs the assembly’s Constitutional Affairs Committee. The Parliament will not be a major player in the withdrawal process itself, but it will have to provide consent and “approve what is going to be negotiated,” Hübner said.

“The will of the British citizens should be respected with a swift and coherent implementation of the withdrawal procedure,” reads the resolution’s text, which was still subject to amendments on Tuesday. The U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU, the text reads, “must begin as soon as formal notification has been communicated.”

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Hübner said the process needed to get underway immediately to avoid creating delays on other “long-term action” the Parliament is dealing with, including the EU’s budget priorities.

“The referendum is having impact on that,” she said.

The draft resolution also calls on the European institutions and EU member countries to reform the Union, “make it better and more democratic,” and reinforce “the core of the EU.”

An official with the center-right European People’s Party said the Parliament’s largest political group was not initially in favor of a resolution. But the official said Manfred Weber, the group’s leader, told his rank-and-file MEPs Monday that they needed a united stance against the populists and to “calm the markets.”

Others in Parliament were more critical of the resolution, saying it would put undue pressure on the U.K. as it grapples with its own internal political divisions after the referendum.

“This EP resolution is extremely unhelpful, particularly at a time when even the leading figures from the Leave campaign are asking for a period of reflection and consultation,” said one Parliament official. “Seeking to force the U.K. into pulling the Article 50 trigger is not a friendly act and does not allow for the calm currently needed.”

Some members of the EPP have called on British MEPs, particularly those who chair parliamentary committees, to resign after the U.K. voted to leave. But Hübner told reporters that British MEPs would remain full members and benefit from the same rights as non-British deputies.

The resignation of British MEPs, she said, “is absolutely impossible.”

The European Conservatives and Reformists group, which includes 21 U.K. Conservatives among its membership, also confirmed that all of its MEPs would retain their full mandate and “all will continue to fulfill that mandate.”