UK can't pick and choose Brexit terms
European Union leaders have countered British optimism about a smooth and mutually beneficial divorce between Britain and the EU.
Many have declared that despite what British Prime Minister Theresa May thinks, Britain will not dictate the terms it leaves the bloc by.
EU President Donald Tusk warned Britain that it will not be able to "pick-and-choose" the choicest bits of trade and immigration as both sides wade into the negotiations this spring.
He said May's Brexit speech on Tuesday, in which she outlined her plans for moving ahead with the divorce, was proof the EU's united stance was working.
May acknowledged she would not be able to break the EU's sacrosanct link between having people and goods move around freely.
Tusk said the concession "proves that the unified position of 27 member states on the indivisibility of the single market was finally understood and accepted by London" even before the negotiations start.
Such statements poured cold water on buoyant British praise for May's aim for flexible and swift negotiations on top of a "bold and ambitious free trade agreement with the EU."
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta, which holds the rotating EU presidency, insisted such a trade deal could only be negotiated after Britain leaves, which is expected in 2019.
EU Affairs Minister Ann Linde said May had made it "very clear that she wants a very hard Brexit" and anticipated difficult negotiations ahead.
And when British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson heard about a reported comment from an aide to French President Francois Hollande that Britain should not expect a better trading relationship once it is out of the bloc, he let off steam.
"If Mr. Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anybody who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War II movie, then I don't think that that is the way forward," Johnson said.
Aiming to calm down tempers, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker noted the EU was "not in a hostile mood" but added it will be tough to negotiate with a longtime EU member that now "will be seen as a third country."
Uncertainty surrounded other aspects of May's Brexit speech - including her promise of a vote for Britain's Parliament on the deal struck with the EU.
May and Brexit Secretary David Davis both declined to answer outright when asked what would happen if lawmakers rejected it.
"They won't vote it down," Davis told the BBC. "This negotiation will succeed."
It remains unclear, though, whether May can formally begin the process of leaving the EU without Parliament's approval. Britain's Supreme Court says it will give its highly anticipated judgement in a legal battle over Brexit on January 24.
