Jean Claude Juncker: European Commission expects Brexit to proceed
1 min read
Jean Claude Juncker has downplayed the possibility of Brexit not going ahead, despite other European leaders expressing hopes that the UK will remain in the EU after all.
The president of the European Commission said it was his “working hypothesis” that last June’s referendum result would be fulfilled and the UK would quit the bloc.
His comments come after the prime minister of Malta said he believed “Brexit will not happen”.
Joseph Muscat argued “doubt is creeping in” about leaving the EU among the British public and warned that Brexit would have “disastrous consequences” for the UK.
But Mr Juncker told Politico that he expected the end result to be the UK going ahead.
“I don’t go as far as the Maltese prime minister who has not ruled out that it will not come to Brexit... My working hypothesis is that it will come to Brexit.”
Brexit negotiations got underway in earnest earlier this summer, and Mr Juncker said the complexity of withdrawing from the EU was becoming more apparent.
“People will become more and more conscious of the density of problems on a daily basis, without always being able to provide a coherent answer to these problems,” he added.
He said the talks were in “good hands” with Michel Barnier, the Commission’s chief negotiator, which means Mr Juncker only has to spend “as much time as it needs” on Brexit.
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