Earlier, MPs voted 522 to 13 in favour of an early General Election - giving Mrs May the support of two-thirds of MPs required to dissolve Parliament.
"The good news on the European side is that she will be less weak to make all the concessions she will have to make" in the talks, the diplomat said, adding that such concessions would be harder to make before an election.
The early ballot will give the prime minister - or her replacement - more time to implement Brexit before another election. "The British people voted previous year to leave the European Union".
On the back of Britain's Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, it will be a decision which will be of huge interest internationally.
European Union officials say Britain's surprise election will not interrupt the bloc's preparations for Brexit talks - though they will slightly delay the start of negotiations.
A spokesman for European Council president Donald Tusk said: "The UK elections do not change our EU27 plans".
Britain's Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at a meeting about social care in Birmingham central England Tuesday April 18, 2017.
"Opinion polls have been saying that the conservatives have a huge lead over the Labour party, therefore you can view the prime minister's decision to go for a general election as a piece of cheap opportunism to get an easy victory over the Labour party".
But her decision also opens the door to more uncertainty in the region, as it now puts Europe's three most powerful nations - Britain, Germany and France - into full-throttle election mode.
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Telling MPs it was time to "put our fate in the hands of the people and let the people decide", Mrs May told the House of Commons: "We are determined to bring stability to the United Kingdom for the long term and that's what this election will be about - leadership and stability".
"The Prime Minister says we have a stronger economy, yet she can't explain why people's wages are lower today than they were 10 years ago or why more households are in debt, six million people earning less than the minimum wage, child poverty is up, pensioner poverty is up".
The broad contours of the electoral debate likely to unfold in coming months began to emerge during Prime Minister's Questions and the debate held just ahead of the vote, as leaders and significant figures across the political spectrum sought to clarify their views.
The smaller Liberal Democrats, who lost most of their seats in 2015 after entering coalition with the Conservatives, are hoping to capitalise on their strong support for the European Union to win new support.
Mrs May said she would not take part in any televised leaders' debates, leading to criticism from Mr Corbyn and other party leaders she was "running scared".
May's Conservatives now hold 330 House of Commons seats and Labour 229.
British Prime Minister Theresa May reacts during the debate.
"A general election is the best way to strengthen Britain's hand in the negotiations ahead", May told lawmakers at the outset of a 90-minute debate. "I will be asking for the British people for a mandate to complete Brexit and make a success of it".
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