Two EU sources familiar with the bloc's latest thinking on a possible Brexit told Reuters on Thursday there was no appetite to grant any extension of the two years provided by the EU's Lisbon Treaty for negotiating a withdrawal, while any new trade partnership would take many more years to conclude.
The stark view from Brussels means Britain could initially be cut adrift without any preferential relationship with its biggest trade partner. It contrasts with suggestions by "Leave" campaigners that London could secure a special status preserving market access before it formally leaves the EU. [...]
However in case of a "Leave" vote, the European Commission has tentative plans to hold a rare Sunday meeting on June 26 to set its strategy, one source told Reuters.
EU leaders would hold a brief summit with Britain two days later, at which London would be expected to give formal notice to quit. The 27 other states would then meet without British representatives to decide how to conduct the withdrawal negotiations and take the union forward, based on proposals from the executive Commission.
"It is in our interest to do the divorce as quickly as possible. There's no appetite for negotiating new terms in the first two years," one source said. [...]
Speedy separation
The first source said the initial two-year negotiations would cover only issues such as residual EU budget payments to and from Britain, the pensions of British EU civil servants and relocation of EU agencies based in the UK.
The EU treaty says exit talks can be extended by unanimous vote among all the member states, but both sources said London's partners would want a speedy separation.
Britain would probably leave on July 1, 2018, and become a "third country" in EU parlance. Formal negotiations on some form of trade and partnership agreement could begin only then, the first source said.
In case of a vote to remain, the Commission has kept in place a small UK Task Force which helped to craft a deal negotiated by Prime Minister David Cameron in February to meet British concerns on migrant workers' welfare rights and relations with the euro single currency zone.
The seven-member team led by British EU official Jonathan Faull would oversee smooth implementation of the agreement.
That deal lapses automatically if Britain votes to leave, and the first source said a completely different team would be appointed, probably led by a German or French official, to handle exit negotiations. [...]
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