Britain to be 'new Norway', says Finland's ex-PM

Britain will get a Norway-type deal to keep close economic ties with the European Union but will have no say on decision-making in the bloc after "Brexit" materializes, Finland's former prime minister Alexander Stubb said on Sunday.

The British referendum result has put into question Europe's post-war order, sent stocks tumbling around the world and left the EU pondering how to handle the divorce.

Stubb, who served as Finland's prime minister in 2014-15, said the EU should not push Britain into quickly launching a formal exit procedure.

"This will be an extremely complicated set of negotiations, there will be hundreds and thousands of legal, political and economic implications," Stubb said.

"It's going painful and long," he said, adding that putting a firm deadline on the process would be "unwise".

"We should not be childish in thinking about punishing the UK. It's not in the interest of Europe to cut relations with the United Kingdom and it's not in the interest of the UK to be cut off from the continent immediately either," he said.

Stubb said the new deal between Britain and the bloc should keep maximum economic integration possible and pointed to non-EU member Norway as the example.

"We should try to keep Britain as close as possible but they will not have the possibility to influence decision-making. The UK will become a new Norway," he said.

"They will pay for membership, have less influence on decision-making and laws but at the end of the day have similar benefits they have today."

As a member of the European Economic Area, Norway gets access to EU's single market in exchange for contributing about 400 million euros a year to the EU budget. But it must accept EU's rules on the single market and free movement of people without a vote.