London remains open to EU, Say Mayor ahead high-level talks
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London, Sept. 22, 2016 (dpa/NAN) London will “remain open to talent, ideas and people from across the world” despite Britain voting to leave the EU, Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Thursday.
Khan made this know ahead of a meeting with EU Parliament President Martin Schulz.
He said that the decision to leave the EU “was not what the capital wanted.
He said that he would work closely with the EU and its member states to “boost economic prosperity both in London and across the continent.
“I planned to discuss with Schulz on how he is pressing the British government.
“To “state unequivocally that no retrospective legislation will ever be introduced that curtails the rights of EU nationals currently working in London,” he said.
Speaking in Berlin earlier before meetings with Khan and Prime Minister Theresa May in, Schulz said that Britain needs to leave the EU before parliamentary elections in the bloc in mid-2019.
Negotiations on a Brexit can take no longer than two years, meaning that Britain would have to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
This has set rules for a two-year negotiating process for a nation leaving the EU, by the middle of next year.
May has said that she will not trigger Article 50 this year, but many analysts expect her to do so early in 2017.
Schulz said that considering the highly complex modalities of a British exit from the bloc, he could understand that the British government wanted to take its time over the decision.
He said that it would be impossible for Britons to take part in the mid-2019 election, which sees member states elect deputies to represent them in the legislature in Brussels.
Schulz said he planned to “reiterate that the four freedoms of the single market goods, capital, services and persons are equally important” during his meetings in London.
A narrow majority of British voters opted to leave the EU in a Referendum on June 23. (dpa/NAN)
(Editted by Damilola Oyewole/ Julius Enehikhuere)