The European Parliament (EP) has decided to hold an extraordinary plenary session on Tuesday morning, in order to adopt a resolution on the UK's withdrawal procedures, EP President Martin Schulz said on Friday morning in Brussels.
After an extraordinary conference of political group leaders in the European Parliament, Schulz told the reporters that the emergency meeting ahead the summit of the European Union (EU) will focus on accessing the outcome of the referendum and describing the necessary next steps of the EU institutions.
"We are very sad about the decision," the EP President said on the outcome of the referendum, noting that the leaving expression made by British people is a sovereign one.
Considering the markets instability and political uncertainty triggered by the Brexit, Schulz stressed that stability is currently needed on both sides: inside the 27 EU member states and UK as well.
"We should especially protect the Eurozone, to prevent what is happening already to the British pound and on the markets," he said.
According to the EU rules, in order to leave the union, the UK government will first have to launch a proposal to activate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which sets out the procedural requirements for a member state to terminate its membership.
Then, the UK should hold a vote in the national Parliament. Only once this has passed will the UK be able to formally notify the European Council of its decision to quit the EU.
However, local media "EUobserver" quoted a source said the parliament's planned resolution will rule the start of the legal withdrawal process from UK's notification of the vote's result.
This is to avoid letting Cameron - or his successor after he resigns in October - delay the notification and to try to use the delay to obtain more favorable terms in the UK's future relationship with the EU.
Manfred Weber, Chairman of the European People's Party (EPP) in the parliament, urged the two sides to conclude the exit negotiations swiftly.
"Respecting the democratic decision of the British voters also means that the exit negotiations should be swiftly concluded, within the two-year deadline, as defined in the Lisbon Treaty," he said.
"From our point of view, there cannot be any special treatment for the United Kingdom," Weber stressed, "the British people have expressed their wish to leave the EU. Leave means leave. The times of cherry-picking are over."
Commenting on the decision of the British people to leave the EU, Syed Kamall, European Conservatives and Reformists group leader who is from London, said the EU must respect British people's decision.
"The EU would be mistaken if it wishes to send a signal to the rest of the EU by punishing Britain," he warned.
"I hope that we can see a cool and sensible reaction, that keeps in mind the need for Britain and the rest of Europe to continue cooperating in those areas where it is in our mutual interest. We now need to move on from being reluctant tenants to becoming friendly neighbors," he said. (Xinhua)
