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A letter is expected to land on the desk of European Council President Donald Tusk next week that will signal the start of the fundamental reshaping of Britain and Europe.

The document, carrying the signature of British Prime Minister Theresa May, will provide formal notice that Britain is withdrawing from the 28-nation European Union after more than 40 years of membership.

British officials said Monday that the expected two-year period of negotiations for leaving the bloc will begin when the letter is delivered March 29, triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty the formal process for the withdrawal.

The country must work out numerous issues with the remaining 27 EU nations, including trade and immigration deals, workers rights and the conditions for retirees and students to live and study abroad.

"We are on the threshold of the most important negotiation for this country for a generation," David Davis, secretary of state for exiting the European Union, said in a statement.

"The government is clear in its aims: a deal that works for every nation and region of the U.K. and indeed for all of Europe a new, positive partnership between the U.K. and our friends and allies in the European Union, he said.

May, during a speech in Wales on Monday, stressed that she was committed to securing the right deal for Britain as part of what is commonly known as Brexit. She said the June referendum in which voters favored leaving the European Union 52% to 48% was not just about exiting from the EU, but a vote for a change in the way the country works."

Exactly how May, leader of the Conservative Party, and her government plan to secure that change remains far from clear and, in the short term, Britain is likely to be thrown into a period of intense uncertainty.

The Labor Partys Brexit secretary Keir Starmer painted an ominous picture of the road ahead, saying, Britain is now more divided at home and isolated abroad.

He also criticized the prime minister for failing to provide greater certainty about what Brexit would look like, or making sure a contingency plan was in place in case no deal was reached within the two-year negotiation period.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said the prime minister rushed this through without a plan, and without a clue.

The developments have also stirred differences of opinion within the components of the United Kingdom England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has called for a second independence referendum within two years, once the full terms of the Brexit deal are known.

May has rejected such an idea, saying now is not the time, but the issue is unlikely to go away considering that Scotland voted 62% to 38% to remain within the EU and feels it is being withdrawn against its will.

May, who succeeded David Cameron after he campaigned for the losing side in the referendum, has said she intended to trigger Article 50 by the end of March.

The timeline was thrown into doubt after a legal challenge was mounted against the government questioning the mandate the prime minister had to take Britain out of the European Union without Parliaments approval.

The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that May needed the backing of both the House of Commons and House of Lords to proceed. Lawmakers last week approved the Brexit Bill formally called the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act and it was ratified by Queen Elizabeth II.

May is expected to make a statement to the House of Commons setting out her agenda for the months and years ahead. She has previously said that there could be no half in, half out deal and Britain is prepared to withdraw from the European single market a central tenet of the European Union that guarantees the free movement of goods, capital, services and people and also the customs union, which guarantees tariff-free trade within Europe.

"No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain," May said during a January speech.

For their part, several European officials have said they are poised and ready to get negotiations underway.

Within 48 hours of the U.K. triggering Article 50, I will present the draft #Brexit guidelines to the EU27 Member States, Tusk wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Tusk said EU leaders will meet within four to six weeks to decide on their negotiating stance, paving the way for discussions to begin around May. After a draft deal is drawn up, it will need to be approved by at least 20 of the remaining 27 EU member states and ratified by the European Parliament.

May has said she will give lawmakers a vote on the deal she negotiates.

Economics and public policy professor Jonathan Portes of Kings College London said the negotiations probably will result in a compromise no one likes, but everyone will describe as a victory.

"But if politics either here or on the continent derails the process, Portes said, we could soon find that far from taking back control, we have done precisely the opposite."

Boyle is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

4:55 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with Times reporting.

This article was originally published at 5:10 a.m.

An earlier version of this article identified the Liberal Democratic leader as Tim Fallon. He is Tim Farron.

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A letter from Britain to the European Union will trigger the ...

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Warsaw continued its recent bitter war of words with eurocrats as it threatened to veto the proposed Rome Declaration, which is meant to pave the way forward for the project after Brexit.

Prime minister Beata Szydo said she would not hesitate to vote down the document if it does not match Polands priorities as her country takes an increasingly hard line towards European integration.

Such a move would spark pandemonium amongst other member states at what is supposed to be a carefully choreographed and painstakingly stage-managed display of unity during the blocs darkest hours.

Eurocrats have repeatedly talked up the summit in Rome, to be held on March 25, saying it will be a display of solidarity between the remaining member states and a birth certificate for the EU at 27.

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But those plans now appear to be in disarray amid a brutal and escalating diplomatic crisis with Warsaw, which has been infuriated by the re-election of Donald Tusk as EU Council president.

After the decision was made in Brussels earlier this month Polish ministers issued a series of extraordinary attacks on their fellow member states and vowed to take revenge by blocking future EU initiatives.

And now it appears they have the much-vaunted Rome Declaration, which is legally of no consequence but which could not be more symbolically important to Brussels, firmly in their sights.

Ms Szydo said: If the declaration does not include the issues which are priorities for Poland, we will not accept the declaration.

The unity of the European Union, defence of a tight NATO cooperation, strengthening the role of national governments and the rules of the common market which cannot divide but unite these are the four priorities which have to be included in the dec

Her open threat will provoke fury in Europes other capitals where for some senior leaders patience with Warsaws political grandstanding is growing increasingly thin.

AFP/Getty Images

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Hollande and Merkel on the second day of a European Summit

Earlier this month Francois Hollande appeared at the end of his tether with Poland when he said EU funding to the country - the blocs biggest recipient - should be pulled until it rows into line.

Those remarks sparked a blazing row over dinner with Ms Szydo, who subsequently called an extraordinary press conference at which she accused the rest of Europe of bullying and "blackmailing" her country.

The summit descended into acrimony after Warsaw vetoed the conclusions of the EU Council summit in protest at the re-election of Mr Tusk and of plans to pursue a two-speed Europe in which it fears it will be left behind.

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Poland vows to veto plan for EU future unless it includes more power back from Brussels - Express.co.uk

On March 25, 1957, leaders of six nations Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands met in Rome and signed two treaties that gave birth to the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community. In 1993, the EEC became part of what has since been known as the European Union (EU), and, since Rome, its membership has more than quadrupled.

Six years earlier, in 1951, the same six nations had established, as a first step towards greater interdependence, the European Coal and Steel Community.

On this 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, I celebrate with Europe. To imagine how far the continent has traveled from the devastation wrought by the Second World War and the conflicts that preceded it is to be reminded of the limitless possibilities of history.

Needless to say, this previously unforeseeable progress did not simply happen. It emerged from the vision of those who chose to look beyond the narrow confines of the moment into the distant horizon, accompanied by an iron will to write a new chapter in Europes history, notwithstanding the endless hurdles and roadblocks along the way.

And it was facilitated by a pragmatic approach that stressed gradualism, building the new European architecture brick by brick.

An incalculable debt of gratitude is owed to those who laid the groundwork for what surely is the most ambitious and successful peace project in modern history.

Among them was Winston Churchill who, in his legendary Zurich speech of 1946, spoke of the need to recreate the European family and allow it to dwell in peace, in safety and in freedom. The first step, he proposed, must be a partnership between France and Germany. His longer-term objective was a United States of Europe.

A few years later, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, inspired by his remarkable deputy, Jean Monnet, declared: The coming together of the nations of Europe requires the elimination of the age-old opposition of France and Germany. Any action taken must in the first place concern these two countries.

Perhaps for younger generations this 60th anniversary evokes little more than a yawn or a sigh. Whats the big deal, they might ask?

The answer, pure and simple, is that it is a very big deal.

A continent once ravaged by one war after another, and whose soil has been soaked with the blood of millions indeed, tens, if not hundreds, of millions killed because of racial theories, religious disputes, territorial claims, leaders megalomania, economic greed, and more, no longer loses sleep fearing a new outbreak of cross-border violence. The very idea of a war between France and Germany, or any other combination of EU members, today is unthinkable.

These are the EUs greatest achievements peace, harmony, and coexistence among its members, based on the common foundation of a commitment to democratic values, the rule of law, and respect for human dignity, not to mention the rapid economic development of many EU states that came as a direct result of membership.

I still pinch myself when crossing the border between France and Germany and encounter no guards checking passports; or when seeing a history textbook that is the product of a joint French-German commission; or when observing the three Baltic states as full-fledged EU members, and recalling that less than 30 years ago they were still Soviet-occupied territories dreaming of freedom; or when remembering the fascist regimes in Greece, Portugal, and Spain in the early 1970s, and now witnessing their inclusion in the EU as fully democratic societies.

As a dedicated transatlanticist and Europhile, and as the husband and father of four EU citizens, I know full well that all is not perfect in todays Europe.

Heaven knows, Europe has no shortage of challenges, from the three is immigration, integration, and identity to economic stagnation in Greece, a fragile banking system in Italy, and youth unemployment over 50 percent in some countries; from disenchantment with the centralization of power in a seemingly detached Brussels, to internal security threats, as evidenced of late in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and the U.K.; from the strong winds of populism and extremism, to the earthquake of the Brexit vote last June; and from intense debates over the degree of national sovereignty versus post-sovereignty, to Russian meddling with the aim of dividing and undermining European unity.

As the EU navigates these minefields, considers course corrections, and, more broadly, charts its future path, the 60th anniversary provides an opportunity to take stock of just how far Europe has come since the end of World War II, and to remind Europes citizens, and especially younger generations, that the EU is about far more than the standardization of light bulbs or food policies.

There will be ample time for more EU introspection and debate, but, if only for a few days, that should give way to celebration and self-congratulation.

Europe, thanks to a handful of visionary leaders, has shown itself and the world what can be accomplished with the audacity to dream and the will to succeed. In fact, maybe the chaotic Middle East will one day learn some of the same lessons.

Happy 60th birthday, European Union, from across the Atlantic!

Link:
Happy 60th Birthday, European Union! - Huffington Post

Signs are growing that inflows of European Union workers to the UK have peaked, just as Theresa May is due to trigger Article 50 to commence the Brexit divorce process.

In an analysispublished Thursdaythe Resolution Foundation think tank highlights official data showing that new National Insurance registrations by EU migrants haveplateauted since the referendum.

It also points to data from the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force survey, which shows the number of EU workers recorded in the UK appears to have peaked.

Provisional net immigration figures released in Februaryfrom the ONS also point to a slower rate of EU immigration to the UK in the third quarter of last year, directly after the referendum.

Net long-term international migration from EU citizens was estimated to be 165,000, down from 189,000 in the previous quarter.

"Given that all three sources point to falling or plateauing migration flows, or indeed actually falling migrant worker numbers, we can be fairly confident that a shift is underway," said Stephen Clarke,an analyst atthe think tank.

There have been reports of labourshortages from sectors such as farming and road haulage, which are particularly reliant on EU workers.

The latest report from the Bank of England's network of regional agents this week said there was "little evidence" yet of EU migrants leaving due to Brexit.

But it added that some had left due to the 13 per cent trade weighted slump in sterling since the referendum vote, which had reduced the value of their repatriated earnings.

And the agents related reports from firms of difficulties recruiting new EU workers "due to a shrinking pool of candidates".

Ms May has interpreted the Brexit vote as a mandate to end EU freedom of movement.

In January she said that the UK would have to leave the single market because the rest of the European Unionhad made it clear that it would not negotiate over freedom of movement for EU workers.

The Prime Ministerhas said she will invoke Article 50 on 29 March.

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Brexit latest: Data points to peak in immigration of European Union workers - The Independent

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2017, 10:26 A.M.

A Union flag flies in front of the the London landmark Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament in London, Monday, March 20, 2017. Britains government will begin the process of leaving the European Union on March 29, starting the clock on the two years in which to complete the most important negotiation for a generation. (Matt Dunham / Associated Press)

BRUSSELS The European Unions chief Brexit negotiator warned Wednesday that there will be serious consequences for everyone if the two sides fail to clinch a deal within two years.

Michel Barnier, who will be leading the EU side during the Brexit discussions, said there could be total uncertainty for Britain if no deal is secured in that timeframe.

He insisted that he will be negotiating in good faith to make sure that a mutually acceptable agreement is reached, telling an audience of lawmakers from parliaments across Europe that this scenario of `no deal is not ours.

Britain is slated to trigger the two-year period of its exit from the EU on March 29, with the talks starting for real in May.

Barnier said no deal could leave four million European and British citizens uncertain about their rights and future, result in the reintroduction of strict customs rules, create air traffic chaos to and from Britain and lead to the suspension of exports of nuclear materials.

The former French government minister said the talks he will lead will be transparent and open, saying that these negotiations cannot take place in secret.

He said the first aim would be to end uncertainty for EU and British students and pensioners abroad, as well as health care workers in the U.K.

The EUs watchword, he said, will be citizens first.

Barnier insisted that Britain will face no punishment for leaving, but that we must settle the accounts. We will not ask the British to pay a single euro for something they have not agreed to as a member.

Some estimated suggest the EU wants Britain to pay a hefty divorce bill of up to 60 billion euros ($64 billion), to cover EU staff pensions and other expenses the U.K. has committed to. Britain hasnt ruled out paying, but is expected to contest the bill.

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European Union warns of 'serious consequences' if no Brexit deal - The Spokesman-Review