BRUSSELS - The concerted response from Berlin, Paris and Brussels to British Prime Minister Theresa May's announcement last week of a March deadline to open divorce talks with the European Union made clear the bloc is not waiting idly for London to call.
Statements from German, French and EU leaders show they have been working on maintaining a united front in anticipation of British attempts to play the other 27 members off against each other and have agreed some broad negotiating lines.
Their firmly articulated, central aim is to nip in the bud British demands for free trade without open immigration - once pithily summed up by Brexit leader and now foreign minister Boris Johnson as "having cake and eating it".
Less audibly, cracks have appeared in the EU refusal to discuss options before May triggers a formal process that will launch Britain out the door in two years, with some diplomats suggesting such talks could mean a less radical split.
May's setting a timetable appeased those at home who feared she was bridling at the decision to leave the EU which voters chose in a referendum in June. But it raised fears among others that she had cornered herself into a total break with the bloc. (Reuters)