London (Online): The United Kingdom could remain in the European Union until late 2019 as civil servants are struggling with Brexit, and elections in France and Germany may hold up the start of exit negotiations, ministers have privately warned.
\nPrime Minister Theresa May is expected to enact Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which would start a two-year countdown to leaving the bloc.
\nHowever, she might have to postpone it because her new Brexit and international trade departments are not ready, according to The Sunday Times.
\n\u201cMinisters are now thinking the [Article 50] trigger could be delayed to autumn 2017,\u201d said one City source who had talked to two senior ministers on the issue. \u201cThey don\u2019t have the infrastructure for the people they need to hire. They say they don\u2019t even know the right questions to ask when they finally begin bargaining with Europe.\u201d
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t negotiate when you don\u2019t know who you\u2019re negotiating with,\u201d added the source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London (Online): The United Kingdom could remain in the European Union until late 2019 as civil servants are struggling with Brexit, and elections in France and Germany may hold up the start of exit negotiations, ministers have privately warned. Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to enact Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n