UK minister expects Brexit to start by March end

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON

The U.K. will trigger Article 50 to initiate the formal process for leaving the EU by the end of March, the country’s top EU-exit official said Tuesday.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said in a joint press conference with Swedish EU Minister Ann Linde in Stockholm that he expected Prime Minister Theresa May to start the formal process in the planned time period.

Davis said he also expected the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the parliament, may return the recently passed bill to the House of Commons for amendments, but all will be resolved in time.

The House of Lords “will do its job of scrutiny, we’ll have some passing backwards and forwards, we call it ping pong, you can imagine why, backwards and forwards of the bill, but I expect that to be resolved in good time before the end of March,” he added.

The status for British citizens living in the EU states and the EU nationals in the U.K. was once more on the agenda during Davis’s Sweden visit.

Linde voiced concerns for about nearly 100,000 Swedes living in the U.K. and 30,000 British nationals living in Sweden, adding they “must not become a bargaining chip” in the Brexit negotiations.

"We are determined to get a good outcome for EU citizens in Britain and Brits in the EU, to protect the rights of British citizens and EU nation citizens and get an answer quickly," Davis said.

He said: "We would have liked to have an answer already, but it will be the very first thing on the negotiation agenda once they start. We understand people feel uncertain."

May previously said an early deal on post-Brexit rights for EU citizens living in the U.K. and British citizens living in EU countries remained an objective for her government.

“This is an issue which I would like to agree quickly but clearly that requires the agreement of the rest of the EU,” May had said.

The bill was passed by a majority of MPs following a U.K. Supreme Court decision which said the government must seek the parliament’s approval before triggering the article.

British voters decided to leave the 28-member bloc in a referendum held last June.

May has insisted she will trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017.