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“This divorce, after 40 years of marriage, is inevitably going to be so painful that no one will want to feel it for themselves,” Orpo said in an interview at his office in Helsinki. “I believe it’s going to be a precedent no one will want to follow.” [...]
Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said in a brief interview on Friday that failure to sort out the U.K.’s financial obligations to the EU as a first step would mean the whole process would be at risk of going “horribly wrong.” He reiterated the EU’s stance that all other bilateral talks need to wait until the so-called divorce bill has been settled.
The U.K.’s determination to move ahead with Brexit is creating unity among the 27 nations that will remain in the bloc, and making them “more decisive” than they were before, Orpo said. “If that spirit remains, it will take Europe forward.”
The EU that emerges from the disruption of Britain’s departure may well function better. Finland could accept a so-called two-speed Europe, in which groups of countries would deepen integration at varying paces for different issues within the EU treaties, instead of the current system of a one-size-fits-all model with the occasional opt-out, the minister said.
“There should be no slowdown in developing the EU because of Brexit,” Orpo said. “Quite the opposite, we should push even harder.” [...]