美国有线新闻 CNN 历时九个月 英国正式启动脱欧程序

Your ten minutes of world news explained begins with the countdown to Brexit.

The British exit or separation from the European Union has officially begun. Nine months after a slim majority of British voters chose to leave the E.U., British Prime Minister Theresa May signed Article 50 this week. That's what gives any E.U. member the right to leave the association on its own.

One reason why the Brexit is so incredibly complicated is legal. Right now, there are 12,000 European Union laws enforced in Britain. They applied 1 to businesses, consumers, workers. And since 1972, these E.U. laws have taken precedence over Britain's own laws.

With that changing, as the nation separates itself from the E.U., it has to convert those laws to suit its own country. So, some will be kept, some replaced, some eliminated. One Brexit official says the government priority was getting the right deal for every single person in Britain.

Lawmakers have two years to figure out how to do that, but it's only one of the challenges they face.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This has just never been done before, unpicking 40 years of treaties and agreements, covering thousands of different subjects. The U.K. has just two years to extricate 2 itself from the European Union.

SUBTITLE 3: What's next after Article 50?

FOSTER: Vast negotiating teams from both sides will work round the clock to try to reach some sort of deal and they're going to start by looking at the breakup. Some of the issues they're going to have to tackle includes what they're going to do with Brits living in Europe, what they're going to do with Europeans living in the U.K.? How are they going to leave this trading bloc 4, the single European market? And will London keep its status as the go-to financial hub for euro trading?

The biggest problem though is what some E.U. officials see as a massive lingering bill. Britain should they say be paying billions of dollars for years to come into ongoing 5 projects that they have a stake in.

Once they do reach the deal, 20 of the E.U. heads of states representing at least 65 percent of the total population need to approve it. Also, the U.K. parliament needs to approve it. And what if they don't? Well, you could extend the negotiations 6, but all sides would have to agree to that.

The alternative would be Britain just leaving the European Union and the U.K. will have to pull back on World Trade Organization rules.

Alongside all of this, they're going to have to reach a new set of deals as well to establish a new relationship between the E.U. and the U.K. What about things like security, new trade deals? Enormous projects to consider alongside that main deal.