The two-year countdown to Brexit has begun

BACK in October Theresa May promised to invoke Article 50, the legal procedure for leaving the European Union, by the end of March 2017. On March 29th the prime minister duly sent a six-page letter to Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council of heads of EU governments. Article 50 sets in motion a negotiating process with a two-year time limit that can be extended only by unanimous agreement of all EU governments. Mrs May told Parliament this was a time for the country to come together. And in her letter she promised her European partners (seven times) that she wanted a “deep and special partnership” with the EU.

No doubt mindful of the two-year deadline, the response from Brussels was swift. Mr Tusk issued a curt acknowledgment and said he would publish draft guidelines for the negotiations shortly. He confirmed that, after debate among EU governments, the European Council would meet on April 29th to approve the guidelines; later, governments will approve a negotiating mandate for the European Commission. The April meeting will fall between the two rounds of France’s presidential election, giving leaders something else to chew over. They will also have in...