LONDON — The European Union (EU) warned Britain on Friday (June 9) that delaying Brexit negotiations after Prime Minister Theresa May failed to win a majority in elections could wreck the chance of securing a divorce deal.

Brussels had set June 19 as the start date for talks, but the bloc’s leaders said that was now in doubt after Mrs May’s gamble to strengthen her parliamentary mandate backfired.

EU President Donald Tusk bluntly warned that the clock was now ticking for negotiations on Britain’s exit and a new trade deal before it formally leaves the bloc in March 2019.

“We don’t know when Brexit talks start. We know when they must end. Do your best to avoid a ‘no deal’ as result of ‘no negotiations’,” he wrote on Twitter.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said the bloc had been ready “for months” to negotiate but suggested talks could be held up while Britain figures out its new top team.

“The dust in the UK now has to settle,” Mr Juncker was quoted as telling Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier indicated the remaining 27 members were prepared to be flexible.

“Brexit negotiations should start when UK is ready; timetable and EU positions are clear. Let’s put our minds together on striking a deal,” the Frenchman said on Twitter.

Mr 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.

But EU budget commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Britain’s Mrs May was now likely to be a “weak” partner.

“The British need to negotiate their exit but with a weak negotiating partner, there is a danger that the talks are bad for both parties,” Mr Oettinger told German radio, adding that “the next few hours or days will indicate if the other negotiating party can even begin talks because without a government, there can be no negotiations.”

However in Britain, there are calls for Mrs May to delay the Brexit negotiations.

Centrist Liberal Democrats party, which secured 12 seats said Brexit talks were “about to get very real,” with its leader Tim Farron warning that the “consequences will be felt by every single person in this country.”

“It is simply inconceivable that the prime minister can begin the Brexit negotiations in just two weeks’ time. The negotiations should be put on hold until the Government has reassessed its priorities and set them out to the British public,” he said.

Mrs May is unlikely to do so, declaring later on Friday that she will stick to the timetable for Britain to leave the EU.

When the talks do begin, experts say there could be a very different approach from the “hard Brexit” advocated by Mrs May that would involve leaving Europe’s single market and curbing European immigration.

“What the UK asks for might not be quite as hard, quite as tough as she was asking for before. We might see a softening of the stance in response to this election result,” said Professor Simon Hix, an expert in politics at the London School of Economics.

His views were echoed by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who urged Mrs May to adopt a “soft Brexit,” which would result in Britain staying in the European single market as it leaves the EU.

“The reckless Tory pursuit of a ‘hard Brexit’ must now be abandoned,” she said.

Still, whatever tack Mrs May choose to take, LSE’s Paul Kelly said the election result has weakened Mrs May’s hand in Brussels, where she is due to attend a summit on June 22 and 23.

“(German Chancellor) Merkel will notice that, (French President Emmanuel) Macron will notice that. Everybody will notice that and that changes the dynamic,” he said. AGENCIES