{"id":200180,"date":"2019-01-31T04:41:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T09:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=200180"},"modified":"2019-01-31T04:41:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T09:41:10","slug":"eu-wont-budge-on-brexit-deal-as-may-seeks-cross-party-unity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/31\/eu-wont-budge-on-brexit-deal-as-may-seeks-cross-party-unity\/","title":{"rendered":"EU won’t budge on Brexit deal as May seeks cross party unity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
In London, Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged that her government hasn’t decided exactly how it will try to change the deal to address British lawmakers’ concerns about the Irish border. (File Photo:<\/a> @theresa_may\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders offered a united chorus of \u201cNo\u201d on Wednesday to Britain’s belated bid to negotiate changes to the Brexit divorce deal, with one official calling on British lawmakers to stop bickering and work out a cross-party approach.<\/p>\n

In London, Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged that her government hasn’t decided exactly how it will try to change the deal to address British lawmakers’ concerns about the Irish border.<\/p>\n

All this while Britain is headed for the EU exit in less than two months, on March 29.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are, quite simply, running out of road,\u201d Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by winning a vote in Parliament, May has vowed to secure \u201clegally binding changes\u201d to the withdrawal agreement. British lawmakers voted Tuesday to send May back to Brussels seeking to replace an Irish border provision in the deal with \u201calternative arrangements,\u201d ignoring EU warnings that the agreement can’t be altered.<\/p>\n

But EU leaders saw the House of Commons session in a very different light.<\/p>\n

Jean-Claude Juncker, chief of EU executive arm the European Commission, said Tuesday’s vote \u201chas increased the risk of a disorderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom\u201d from the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe withdrawal agreement will not be renegotiated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other EU governments backed that stance, leaving little room for May to realistically secure any changes to the Brexit deal.<\/p>\n

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that \u201cwe’ve been down that track before and I don’t believe that such alternative arrangements exist.\u201d German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said \u201copening up the withdrawal agreement is not on the agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain and the EU struck a divorce deal in November after a year and a half of tense negotiations. But the agreement has run aground in Britain’s Parliament, which overwhelmingly rejected it on Jan. 15.<\/p>\n

Much of the opposition centres on a border measure known as the \u201cbackstop,\u201d a safeguard mechanism would keep the U.K. in a customs union with the EU to remove the need for checks along the border between the U.K.’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland after Brexit.<\/p>\n

The border area was a flashpoint during decades of conflict in Northern Ireland that cost 3,700 lives. The free flow of people and goods across the near-invisible border underpins both the local economy and Northern Ireland’s peace process.<\/p>\n

Many pro-Brexit British lawmakers fear the backstop will trap Britain in regulatory lockstep with the EU, and say they won’t vote for May’s deal unless it is removed.<\/p>\n

May was speaking to Ireland’s Varadkar and European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday, and met opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to find elusive cross-party unity on Brexit.<\/p>\n

May conceded that her government hadn’t settled on a way to replace the backstop, telling lawmakers that \u201cthere are a number of proposals for how that could be done.\u201d May said measures under consideration included a unilateral exit mechanism from the backstop for Britain, a time limit to the backstop and \u201cmutual recognition and trusted trader schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU says the backstop is an insurance policy and as such can’t have a time limit or a get-out clause.<\/p>\n

Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that \u201cfrankly, no one from either side is able to say precisely, in a clear way, what the nature of these alternative arrangements would be, whether they would be workable and effectively fulfil the aims of the backstop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The EU parliament’s point-man on Brexit, Guy Verhofstadt, underlined that nobody in Europe wanted to use the backstop, but that it’s \u201cneeded to be 100 per cent sure that there is no border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verhofstadt said the only way for May to win concessions would be to back away from her long-held stance that Britain would not remain part of the EU’s customs union after Brexit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the future relationship is, for example, a customs union, that makes it completely different,\u201d Verhofstadt told reporters.<\/p>\n

Corbyn, who heads Britain’s left-wing main opposition party, said he \u201cset out the Labour case for a comprehensive customs union with the European Union\u201d during talks with May.<\/p>\n

He called the talks \u201cserious\u201d but accused the government of \u201crunning down the clock\u201d to force lawmakers to choose between May’s deal and a \u201cno-deal\u201d Brexit in March 29.<\/p>\n

Verhofstadt called for a cross-party approach in Britain, saying he hoped the meeting between the Conservative and Labour leaders will yield something more than \u201conly eating biscuits and drinking tea.\u201d<\/p>\n

If they start working together, he said, \u201cit could be the solution to this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many businesses fear economic chaos will ensue if the U.K. isn’t covered by existing EU trade agreements or a new agreement, leading to tariffs, customs checks and other barriers between the U.K. and the EU.<\/p>\n

British lawmakers approved a motion Tuesday ruling out a \u201cno-deal\u201d Brexit but without saying how they expect that goal to be achieved. The vote was not legally binding, but has political force as an expression of the will of Parliament.<\/p>\n

Juncker called on British lawmakers to make clear what they want.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know from yesterday’s debate that the House of Commons is against many things,\u201d Juncker said. \u201cIt is against a no-deal Brexit, it is against a backstop.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we still don’t know what exactly the House of Commons is for.\u201d<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

Jill Lawless reported from London. Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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