PARIS (Sputnik) — On June 23, the United Kingdom held a referendum to determine whether or not the country should leave the European Union. According to the final results, 51.9 percent of voters, or 17.4 million people, decided to support Brexit, while about 16.1 million opposed it.
On June 25, following the referendum, the foreign ministers of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands called on the United Kingdom in a joint statement to leave the European Union as soon as possible in order to avoid uncertainty.
"We would like to see this decision [Brexit vote] being implemented as soon as possible in order to start talks that will determine the future of relations between the EU and Britain," Hollande said at a joint news conference with new UK Prime Minister Theresa May in Paris.
Hollande added that political uncertainty fraught with economic turbulence makes it urgent to negotiate the UK-EU divorce.
"However it [start of negotiations] is in the interests of our countries as uncertainty is a grave danger, for citizens and economic actors wondering what will be done, under which conditions the United Kingdom will leave the European Union and what further relations will be like, and this carries risks to stability of our economies."
New UK Prime Minister May said Wednesday that the country was not going to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty until the end of the year.
