How May's failed deal shattered EU relations

Donald Tusk, though devastated by a 2016 Brexit referendum result he had predicted, counselled for calm. Brussels had no choice but to wait it out for the formal two years of withdrawal talks to start, he argued. There would be no negotiation without Britain’s formal notification of the wish to leave. Even attempts by the government’s senior Brexit adviser, Olly Robbins, to speak to the EU’s most senior lawyers would be denied until the treaty exit mechanism, known as article 50, was triggered.