Euroleaders meet for 1st time without UK to discuss EU27 future after Brexit

Heads of state and government of the European Union met for the first time without a United Kingdom representative present on Wednesday after Britain’s referendum vote to leave the bloc.

President of the European Commission, JeanClaude Juncker said at his arrival that “The British have made their decision and today they are no longer at the table.”

The representatives met to agree on a common policy to help reinforce the union that now binds 27 member states.

The European leaders concluded that the United Kingdom’s exit from the union is irreversible.

Pressure has mounted for British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to ensure his government invokes article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty as soon as possible.

Cameron, who said he would resign as prime minister by October, said his successor will be who decides on how to do so.

Belgium’s Prime Minister, Charles Michel, said the important thing now was to keep a “cool head” and achieve stability.

“The UK now says, after the Brexit referendum, that it needs more time, but that is nothing else than ‘British surrealism’,” he said.

“The 27 must continue to give an image of unity,” the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, said on his arrival.

He underlined his opposition to any division of “different small groups” such as a FrenchGermanItalian axis, the six founding nations or the Visegrad group that includes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

The president of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, said the 27 must “continue to work towards a more solid EU.”

Anastasiades said the only way out is “a lot more Union to counteract the eurosceptics and nationalists.”

Lithuania’s president, Dalia Grybauskaite said, “We must all wake up today.”

She said, “Who is going to stop us now that the UK has decided to leave the EU?”

Austria’s Federal Chancellor, Christian Kern, said that within the new relationship with the UK “if this country has rights in their favor, they must also bear responsibilities” and that “today, we must leave that perfectly clear.”

He said that there could not be “only benefits.” He discarded a possible delay in the UK’s exit process.

“This is it,” Kern said. “This is not a game and we have to work with the utmost seriousness.”