European Union tells May "no time to lose" on Brexit talks

However, the Conservatives lost 12 seats, and fell short of the overall majority they needed, though Ms.

Barnier had previously set a timetable of talks starting in the week beginning June 19, with agreement on initial issues by autumn of this year and a provisional Brexit deal in October 2018.

The German chancellor said the European Union wants talks to progress "quickly" and warned it will defend the interests of its members during the looming divorce proceedings. "We might see a softening of the stance in response to this election result", said Simon Hix, politics professor at the London School of Economics. "[Our manifesto] said we wanted to leave the customs union and the single market, but get access to them".

His LSE colleague Paul Kelly said the result would weaken May's hand in Brussels, where she is due to attend a summit on June 22 and 23. "Everybody will notice that and that changes the dynamic", Kelly said. "I don't think that things now have become easier but we are ready".

Paula Surridge, senior lecturer at Bristol University, said it may take time to get to the negotiations in the first place.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of recorded-industry body BPI, says the result will force any future Conservative government to adopt a "more nuanced position" in the upcoming negotiations over Britain's exit from the EU.

Almost a year on from the Brexit vote that caused markets to start worrying about political risk, the U.K.is still the best in the business of supplying uncertainty.

Among Friday's election surprises were the spike in support for the opposition Labour party in London, which voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union, and a strong showing for the pro-European Liberal Democrats.

But EU budget commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Britain's May was now likely to be a "weak" partner.

The other Brexit slogan she kept repeating during the campaign was that "no deal is better than a bad deal".

The election proved disastrous for the U.K. Independence Party, which failed to win a single seat.

"Looks like it was the Brexit election after all".

The firm's chief sovereign analyst Moritz Kraemer told Reuters earlier this week that the shape of the post-Brexit deal with the European Union remained the main factor for the UK's rating.

Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, who is president of the Alliance of Liberals & Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, had caustic words for Mrs May.

"Article 50 has been triggered and we were on our way".

Within hours of the result their unseated leader, Paul Nuttall, announced he was resigning as leader effective immediately and deleted his official UKIP Facebook page and Twitter account.

On behalf of the European Council, I would like to congratulate you on your reappointment as Prime Minister.

"We may well be looking down the barrel of a second referendum", he said.

"Maybe there won't be a hard Brexit", Norwegian Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said. "A vote for one to go and the other to be revisited".

"After Cameron now May, will make already complex negotiations even more complicated" he wrote.

Preliminary results indicate she will instead face a far tougher balancing act between europhiles and eurosceptics within her own party. Most believe May will be returned with an enhanced majority - and they expect that to lead to at best hard talks, and at worst a breakdown of the negotiations, possibly as early as this summer.