Brexit: No substantive talks for 12 months, Herman Van Rompuy predicts
17:21, 15 September 2016
LONDON. KAZINFORM Substantive Brexit talks between the UK and the rest of the EU are unlikely to start much before the end of 2017, a former European Council president says.
Speaking to the BBC, Herman Van Rompuy said negotiations were unlikely until a new German government was formed after next September's election.
The talks will be tough but hopefully of mutual benefit, he said, adding the UK had to make the "first move".
He described the UK's decision to leave the EU as a "political amputation".
Meanwhile, leaders of every EU country, apart from the UK, are gathering in the Slovakian capital Bratislava to discuss the future of the bloc.
The UK voted by 51.9% to 48.1% to end its membership of the EU in a referendum on 23 June.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said that the government will not trigger Article 50 - the formal start of the process of leaving the EU - before 2017.
Read more at BBC