December 8, 2023
This is Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the section that governs departures from the European Union.
Following the plebiscite in the UK in which the electorate voted 51.9% to 48.1% to Leave the European Union, this is the section that will be triggered when the UK government lodges its notice of departure.
Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Article 50
1. Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says there is no cause for Australian to be alarmed by the UK’s vote to leave the European Union.
Speaking shortly after the result became clear today, Turnbull said: “I remind Australians that given that we are living in a world of great opportunities but also great challenges and uncertainties, now more than ever Australia needs a stable majority Coalition Government with a strong economic plan that sets Australia up for a prosperous future.”
The decision to leave the European Union is already causing global financial markets to wobble. The development may be a crucial moment in Australia’s federal election that causes voters to stick with the government.
Transcript of remarks by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on the UK vote to leave the European Union.
TURNBULL: This is a momentous and historic decision and we respect the wishes of the British people, expressed through this referendum. I want to say that Australians, I recognise, will be concerned by the uncertainty and instability in global markets, falls in currencies, including the Australian dollar and in equity markets.
Prime Minister John Howard went to Europe in July 2002 for a two-week trip that some observers saw as a lap of honour before retiring in 2003.
In Germany, he was questioned about his policies on immigration and asylum seekers
and about refugees in general.
Another issue on his trip was the question of European Union agricultural subsidies.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, has arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on the first leg of his two-week European trip.
This is the transcript of his doorstop interview upon arrival in Frankfurt.
Transcript of Prime Minister John Howard’s doorstop interview in Frankfurt.
JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister, what are the sort of things you will be discussing with the European Central Banker today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Obviously the economic state of the Euro area, the success of the Euro. Importantly where he thinks European and World interest rates are going. And I’ll also talk to him about some of the economic formulae that have been successful in Australia.