British PM May fires starting gun on Brexit

LONDON - Prime Minister Theresa May filed formal Brexit divorce papers on Wednesday, pitching the United Kingdom into the unknown and triggering years of uncertain negotiations that will test the endurance of theEuropean Union.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street in London, March 29, 2017.   [Photo/Agencies]

Nine months after Britons voted to leave, May notified EU Council President Donald Tusk in a letter that the UK isquitting the bloc it joined in 1973.

The prime minister, an initial opponent of Brexit who wonthe top job in the political turmoil that followed the referendum vote, now has two years to settle the terms of the divorce before it comes into effect in late March 2019.

"Now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, it istime to come together," May said in a statement issued by heroffice.

"When I sit around the negotiating table in the months ahead, I will represent every person in the whole United Kingdom– young and old, rich and poor, city, town, country and all the villages and hamlets in between," she said.

On the eve of Brexit, May, 60, has one of the toughest jobs of any recent British prime minister: holding Britain together in the face of renewed Scottish independence demands, while conducting arduous talks with 27 other EU states on finance,trade, security and other complex issues.

The outcome of the negotiations will shape the future of Britain's $2.6 trillion economy, the world's fifth biggest, and determine whether London can keep its place as one of the top two global financial centres.

For the EU, already reeling from successive crises over debtand refugees, the loss of Britain is the biggest blow yet to 60years of efforts to forge European unity in the wake of two devastating world wars.

Its leaders say they do not want to punish Britain. But with nationalist, anti-EU parties on the rise across Europe, they cannot afford to give London generous terms that might encourageother member states to break away.