EU leaders confront their worst-case scenario after British rejection

BERLIN – European leaders went into crisis mode Friday after the surprise vote by Britain to exit the European Union, locking themselves inside emergency meetings even as nationalists across the region issued rallying cries to follow in London's footsteps.

From Paris to Dublin to Berlin, heads of state confronted their worst-case scenarios and scrambled to form a consensus on how to now extricate Britain from the 28-nation bloc, as British Prime Minister David Cameron said he planned to step down in defeat. Top leaders of the EU's executive and legislative branches, meanwhile, were meeting over the course of the morning in Brussels. EU ambassadors – all 28 of them, for now – expect to convene this afternoon in Luxembourg before foreign ministers from the six founding EU nations were set to meet in Berlin on Saturday.

[British vote to leave EU; Prime Minister Cameron to resign]

The flurry of diplomacy was laying the groundwork for a previously planned EU leaders summit on Tuesday, where talks on how to handle what could be a painful, messy process of a Britain exit are set to start. Cameron said he did not plan to immediately trigger the clause of the European treaty that would start exit negotiations. That would put a two-year clock on the divorce talks.

"I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination," Cameron said.

Even as key political figures reacted with shock – "Damn! It's a sad day for the EU," tweeted Germany's Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel – others cautioned that it was now up the EU to prove its worth to the people of the continent. The EU, critics say, has veered too far from its initial concept as a customs and economic union, meddling in national budgets and labor laws while seeming a remote bureaucracy to many across the region it serves.

The challenge they faced now was not only the mechanics of a Britain exit, but also how to make the bloc feel more relevant to the region's grass roots to ensure its survival.

"A domino effect on other countries can't be ruled out," Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz told Austrian broadcaster ORF Friday.

Speaking Friday, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, vowed that EU law would still apply in Britain until such time as it officially leaves. He said he had spoken to the region's leaders, and vowed to pursue continued European unity.

But he conceded reflection on the future of the bloc was needed.

"I have proposed to the leaders that we consider a wider reflection on our union," he said. "These last years have been the most difficult in the history of our union. . . . But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

Amid sharp falls in both the British pound and the euro, many conceded the path ahead would be hard.

"The United Kingdom has decided to leave and this means that it will go its own way," Martin Schulz, president of the EU parliament, told German public broadcaster ZDF. "I think the economic data show this morning that it will be a very difficult way."

Anti-EU forces across Europe, meanwhile, awoke Friday with jubilation. Nationalists on the continent immediately called for similar referendums to leave. In the Netherlands, right-wing leader Geert Wilders, already rising in the polls there, lauded the British vote.

"Hurrah for the British! Now it is our turn. Time for a Dutch referendum!" he Tweeted under the hashtag #ByeByeEU.

In France, Marine Le Pen, eyeing next year's presidential race, staked out the promise of a referendum on "Frexit" – or a French Exit – as a campaign pledge.

"Victory for liberty! As I have demanded for years, it is now time to have the same referendum in France and in EU countries," the leader of the French anti-EU National Front party wrote on Twitter.

And euroskeptic politicians in Sweden and Denmark called for referendums of their own.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, also weighed in with jubilation, telling reporters in during a business-focused trip to one of his golf resorts in Scotland that Britons "took back their country. It's a great thing," the Associated Press reported. "People are angry all over the world," he said.

Britain may face tough terms for an exit, and may struggle to withdraw – as many exit supporters suggested – while still maintaining free access to the 27 nations that form the world's largest integrated consumer market. The EU stance, as with many major decisions, will come down largely to the positions of Germany and France, which are likely to drive a hard bargain with London to discourage domestic copycats.

"We respect the result of the British referendum," German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble told reporters in Berlin. "I would have wished for a different result. Now we have to look forward and deal with this situation."

Other, smaller countries – particularly in Eastern Europe – have sent hundreds of thousands of citizens to work in Britain and may seek a gentler tone, in part to spare their expats.

"Punishment is not going to be the best way to consolidate forces," said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius in an interview. He said that EU leaders were already consulting with each other about the next steps to take. The Baltic nation of Lithuania has 3 million citizens at home and 200,000 in Britain, a measure of what is at stake not just for Britain but for the European nations it is leaving behind.

For an Eastern Europe that is staring across its borders at mounting numbers of Russian troops, the British decision will also have security implications, emboldening the Kremlin and weakening European resolve against Russian actions in Ukraine.

"Frankly speaking, of course the Kremlin will celebrate," Linkevicius said. "It's a big day. Any step weakening the unity of the European Union, unfortunately, this could be considered a victory."

In Russia, pro-Kremlin politicians mocked Europe for what they said was going against the euroskeptic will of their populations.

"After the referendums in the Netherlands and Britain, the elites leading the countries of the EU will be against holding them: the opinion of the people is dangerous for their political goals," the head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's lower house of parliament, Alexey Pushkov, wrote on Twitter.