Europe urges UK to hurry up on Brexit

Michel Barnier, chief negotiator for the European Union has warned the United Kingdom to hurry up and begin its Brexit negotiations to leave the EU or risk crashing out without an agreement.

Barnier said that it was three months since the UK had triggered the Brexit process by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which offers a period of two years of negotiations before departure.

"Next week, it will be three months after the sending of the Article 50 letter. We haven't negotiated. We haven't progressed. Thus we must begin this negotiation. We are ready as soon as the UK is ready," he told reporters in Brussels.

The UK appears far from ready. The government does not yet have a majority and it is waiting for an agreement with the Northern Irish Democratic Unionists before it can begin the process to start a new Parliament.

The date for the opening of Parliament and the start of EU negotiations was June 19 but both are likely to be postponed.

Meanwhile, British politicians have started a new debate about how they want the country's departure from the EU to proceed and what they hope the end result will be.

The newly appointed minister for the environment Michael Gove told the BBC that the Conservatives had to reframe their approach and possibly seek cross-party consensus, after losing their majority in Parliament.

"It's also the case that we need to recognize that we as Conservatives were not returned with a majority. And that means we need to proceed with the maximum possible consensus," he said.

He was echoed by former leader of the Conservatives, William Hague, who wrote in The Daily Telegraph, that the UK must put its economic interests above immigration interests in its negotiations with the EU and raised the prospect of working with rival parties.

In Brussels, Barnier appeared frustrated with the UK's inability to decide what it wanted after taking a series of unilateral actions: deciding to leave the EU, starting the process to leave the EU and then calling an election.

"Time is passing. It is passing quicker than anyone believes because the subjects we have to deal with are extraordinarily complex," he said.

"I don't know what hard Brexit or soft Brexit means. I read yesterday 'open' Brexit. Brexit is withdrawal from the EU. It's the UK's decision. We're implementing it."

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