Since the vote, questions have loomed over what strategies Downing Street would adopt in the divorce proceedings.

For their part, leaders of European institutions have cautiously welcomed Britain's newly clarified stance.

There will be no place for pick and choose tactics in future Brexit negotiations, European Council President Donald Tusk warned on Wednesday.

Tuesday's speech by Prime Minister Theresa May proves that the unified position of 27-member states on the indivisibility of the single market was finally understood and accepted by London, Tusk said.

The market has also been cautious, with the British pound rallying to 1.23 U.S. dollars following the speech, after reaching a nearly 31-year low of 1.20 U.S. dollars on Monday.

With 44 percent of Britain's total exports in goods and services for 2015 tied up in the EU single market, Brexit has cast a shadow over the British economy.

Commenting on May's speech at Davos, Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Markit, said the British prime minister had repeated and reinforced the basic themes of her keynote Brexit speech delivered on Tuesday.

She had "promised certainty and clarity about the Brexit process and laid out plans for a stronger, fairer, and more global United Kingdom," Behravesh said.