May, Europe not keen to change divorce terms EU TALKS OPEN TO BREXIT AFTER UK POLLS

Brussels, Nov. 19: European governments started to thrash out a plan for close ties with post-Brexit Britain on Monday in the last week before they gather to sign their divorce papers.

Ministers from the other 27 EU members met in Brussels at the start of what Prime Minister Theresa May calls “an intense week of negotiations” ahead of Sunday's summit. “A painful week in European politics is starting,” Austrian minister for Europe Gernot Blumel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told reporters.

“We have the divorce papers on the table. 45 years of difficult marriage are coming to an end.”The British leader has said she will be in the city herself this week to see the president of the EU commission, JeanClaude Juncker, for lastditch talks.

Neither May nor European leaders are keen to reopen the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement that was grudgingly approved by the British cabinet last week.

But both sides are scrambling to finalise a parallel political declaration that will set out a road-map for post-Brexit negotiations on future EU-UK ties.

“Now that there is a concept withdrawal agreement we think that it is satisfying, it's workable, and we will invest our energy now in the political agreement,” Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said.

London wants to lay out in as much detail as possible a route to a free trade agreement, in part to shore up support in a British parliament that may yet reject the deal.

Brussels, meanwhile, insists Britain cannot have the same privileged access to the single market as it did as a member state after Brexit on March 29 next year.

European negotiators plan to publish their version of the statement on future relations on Tuesday.

On Sunday, according to diplomatic sources, EU ambassadors fleshed out the document from just over six pages to around 20 as more details were agreed. Brussels, Nov. 19: The proposals being negotiated by EU27 ministers in Brussels on Monday could see Britain follow EU rules until after the next general election with a provision that the incoming government can even reverse Brexit before the UK has fully left the bloc.

Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier confirmed that EU leaders are in discussions about a one-time, fixed length extension to the transition period during which all EU rules continue to apply to Britain. “All the governments have agreed to the principle of a possible extension,” he said. He however, said no decision has been made yet to fix 2022 as the end date.

The draft withdrawal agreement published last week includes provisions for a transition extension but lists the date as 20XX with the XX to be filled in later. –Agencies