(AP) – Italy’s finance minister says whatever British voters decide, there’s already a fracture with the European Union.

Minister Pier Carlo Padoan is being quoted as saying at a forum in Rome on Thursday that no matter what happens, it will be impossible to assert “let’s pick up as if nothing” happened.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted him as saying that as Britons vote to decide whether to exit or stay in the EU, that “the fracture has already happened and in a very clear-cut way.” Padoan said the consequences will vary, depending on the outcome, but “there won’t be the same path as if there hadn’t been the referendum initiative.”