British Prime Minister Theresa May today sent formal notice of the country’s intention to withdraw from the European Union, the New York Times reported today. Speaking in Parliament, May said that she was invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, putting Britain on track to leave the European Union in 2019 and raising a host of thorny issues involved in untangling a four-decade relationship. In addition to a welter of trade and customs matters, the Conservative government faces the prospect of a new independence referendum in Scotland, where a majority voted to remain in the European Union, and deep worries about the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. “Today the government acted on the democratic will of the British people, and it acts too on the clear and convincing position of this house,” May told Parliament. “The Article 50 process is now underway, and, in accordance with the wishes of the British people, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union.”
