Britain might struggle to leave the EU bloc, due to the complexity of the negotiations and the inflexibility of EU institutions, Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s former finance minister, has warned.
Varoufakis, known as a fierce Eurozone critic, compared the UK relations with the EU bloc with a well-known song by the Eagles.
“You can check out any time you like, as the Hotel California song says, but you can't really leave,” he said in an interview with the BBC.
“The proof is Theresa May has not even dared to trigger Article 50. It's like Harrison Ford going into Indiana Jones' castle and the path behind him fragmenting. You can get in, but getting out is not at all clear.”
“Facilitating and deepening a crisis in Europe is going to bite you,” he added.
The academic - who was thrust into the spotlight when he became Greece's finance minister for brief period in 2015 - also suggested the UK government should invoke Article 50 as soon as possible and use the negotiating period to prepare itself as nation.
Theresa May has previously said she will not begin the formal two-year leaving process before the end of this year, but has stopped short of saying exactly when it will happen.
There is growing pressure from senior EU politicians for Brexit to be completed before the European Parliament elections in June 2019, which would mean invoking Article 50 in the first half of next year.
Last week, Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, has stepped his criticism of the uncertainty following UK’s vote to leave the EU, saying the Government had been in “no way prepared” for the task.
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