European Commission trying to bully UK: Minister

The president of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, told the Florence conference that no one was looking to undermine May, who says she called the snap election to strengthen her hand in the Brexit negotiations. "I will express myself in French because slowly but surely English is losing its importance in Europe and then the French will have elections next Sunday and I would like them to understand what I'm saying about Europe", he said.

"We will negotiate with our British friends in full transparency".

Donald Tusk, the European Council President, appealed for calm on both sides of the Brexit debate on Thursday.

May has drawn the ire of many European leaders by taking a hard stance ahead of the negotiations, and further angered them this week by suggesting EU leaders were trying to influence an upcoming British national election - which May's party is widely predicted to win - by issuing threats about Brexit. "Discretion, moderation and mutual respect needed", Tusk tweeted, alluding to May's remarks.

Relations between Britain and the rest of the European Union have grown increasingly strained this week, thanks in no small part to outlandish demands by Eurocrats that the British people pay as much as €100 billion to the bloc as a "divorce settlement". "This is not a question of 'punishment.' These negative consequences simply follow logically from the choice made by the British people".

First results showed the governing Conservatives making solid gains, dealing a blow to the main opposition Labour Party and all but wiping out the anti-EU, anti-mass immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP). In addition to the some 3.2 million European citizens in the United Kingdom, privileges must also apply to frontier workers who commute to Britain, people who have worked or lived in the U.K.in the past and family members, including relatives who are not EU citizens, he said.

The head of the European Union's strategic body tweeted Thursday: " #Brexit talks hard enough. If we start arguing before they even begin, they will become impossible.

Interestingly, Mr Juncker's Brexit subordinate, Michel Barnier, speaking at the same conference in Italy, seemed largely to adopt Mr Tusk's moderate tone. "No one wants to interfere in the election of the U.K", he said.

Unveiled by European Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis, the rules would deny London the right to host banking "clearing houses" that deal in euros, the EU's single currency.

"We will of course need, and want to have Britain as a good partner in the future", she said in a speech in Hamburg, adding that the Brexit negotiations would be "extremely complex and intense".

The negotiating directives stipulate that Britain would have to honour all its EU budget commitments made under the 2014-2020 financial period and "fully cover" all costs related to the relocation of the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority.

Mr Tajani, speaking at the launch of a new European Union history museum featuring mementos of the Brexit referendum campaign, went on: "It is better to have an interlocutor who is not constantly looking for votes because they have had the election, in order to work towards a good solution..."