Hello and welcome. My name is Sophia Bash and you're listening to the CER podcast.

On March 29th, 2017, the UK under the leadership of Prime Minister Theresa May has officially

begun the two-year process of leaving the European Union after 44 years

of membership. A letter signed by the Prime Minister in which she triggers Article 50 has been

hand-delivered to the President of the European Council and I am here with Agatha Gustinza

Jakubovska, our CER EU institutions expert who has written extensively on how the Article 50 process is likely to unfold.

Agatha, now that it has happened, what are your major takeaways from May's letter?

Many have remarked on the fact that her tone was more conciliatory than previous statements of hers.

Would you agree with that?

I would agree that Theresa May has actually managed to strike a rather positive and constructive tone,

which would certainly help her to get the negotiations on the right track. She has

abandoned the more confrontational tone than in fact was present in some of the bits of her

Lancaster speech. She didn't threaten European partners that if the UK does not get a deal

that would be satisfactory, the UK would

be willing to turn the islands into the tax heaven. She hasn't said this today. She was more

positive and willing to cooperate. She actually even used the notion of the sincere cooperation that she would hope that this

EU principle would lead the negotiations. Having said this, there is still some elements of her speech,

which to my mind could cause some kind of irritation in European capitals. She basically hinted that she would be willing,

actually, to use the security card in the negotiations. It wasn't that explicit, I think,

as it was in the Lancaster speech, but still, I think, would you agree that this could

cause some tensions in the negotiations?

Right. I mean, on security cooperation, what she has said is that the UK wants to agree a deep

...