European Union Council President Donald Tusk says he will have a proposal for a negotiating mandate ready for the member states by Friday, only two days after Britain triggered the negotiating mandate for divorce proceedings.
Tusk said that he would "share guidelines for negotiations" with the 27 member states when he is in Valletta, Malta, on Friday.
Once those are delivered, the 27 member states will have to come up with definitive guidelines at a summit on 29 April in Brussels.
Later, those guidelines will have to be poured into strict legal text and real negotiations could be expected to start in the second half of May.