Newa: Schäuble urges hard EU stance in Brexit negotiations

Germany's finance minister warned politicians not to let the UK play EU states' interests against each other in Brexit talks. EU officials hope to a new plan will provide the glue that keeps the rest of the EU together.

Wolfgang Schäuble warned the UK on Friday that it will not be able to enjoy the same rights it once did as an EU member without agreeing to the necessary obligations.

"We want to keep the British close, but there are no rights without responsibilities," Germany's finance minister told the "Neue Osnabrüker Zeitung."

The Brexit negotiations will be "a learning process, also, and especially, for the British," Schäuble said. "They have their large financial center in London, but they won't keep their usual access to the EU market if they don't accept the rules of the European bloc."

UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday signed the letter formally invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, triggering a two-year withdrawal process from the EU and ending Britain's 44-year membership in the bloc.

Minimizing the pain on a tight timetable

Schäuble said the key outcome of the Brexit negotiations would be for both sides to minimize the damage of the UK's withdrawal. 

"On the one hand, the details will be complicated and multifaceted, while on the other, all the negotiations need to be concluded within the next two years," he said. "The clock is ticking."

Germany's finance minister also emphasized the importance of the EU's 27 remaining member states presenting a united front in the divorce talks with the UK.

EU states, Schäuble said, must anticipate that the UK would try "to play different EU states and their special interests against each other."

That would also go for Germany, with whom the UK will likely seek a special deal with over car production and other exports."But we can't let ourselves be divided, we have to be united in our talks with the government in London," Schäuble said.

Brexit guidelinesEuropean Council President Donald Tusk is expected on Friday to publish the EU 27's

Brexit negotiating guidelines. Germany and France have already rejected May's call to negotiate the UK's withdrawal and the new relationship with the EU in tandem, and Tusk's set of guidelines and political priorities for the bloc are expected to take a similarly stern tone.

More details are also expected concerning the UK's relationship with the bloc during the transitional period, from when it will have completed its exit by March 29, 2019, to when a new trade deal is finalized - likely some years later.

Tusk is scheduled to present the EU's Brexit strategy at a press conference in Malta with the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country currently holds the European Council's rotating presidency. The EU 27 will then formally adopt the guidelines when its leaders meet at a special summit on April 29.