May wants to stay in EU till 2021
PM Theresa May proposes two-year transition period Urges EU to be creative in forging new UK relationship Britain will also pay contributions to EU budget
THERESA May has told EU leaders she wants a two-year transition deal so the UK can leave the EU in an orderly fashion.
Speaking in Florence yesterday, she also said she did not want any ‘physical infrastructure’ on the border between the North and the Republic.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar cautiously welcomed her speech.
THE United Kingdom is prepared to abide by European rules and pay into the bloc’s coffers for two years after leaving in March 2019, Theresa May said yesterday.
The British prime minister travelled to Florence, Italy, in the hopes of rebooting negotiations with the EU that have stalled over issues including the price the UK must pay to leave and the rights of EU citizens in Britain.
Her speech was intended to kick-start the process before talks resume next week in Brussels.
But while it was strong on praise for the EU and for shared European values, the few concrete details were far from addressing Brussels’ concerns.
Standing in front of a backdrop reading ‘Shared History, Shared Challenges, Shared Future’ in a hall at a Renaissance church, Mrs May said Britain and the EU share ‘a profound sense of responsibility’ to ensure that their parting goes smoothly.
She urged the EU to be ‘creative’ and forge a new economic relationship not based on any current trade model. She rejected both a free-trade deal like the one Canada has struck with the bloc and Norway-style membership in the EU’s single market.
In a conciliatory speech intended to revive foundering exit talks, she called instead for ‘an ambitious economic partnership which respects the freedoms and principles of the EU, and the wishes of the British people’.
The prime minister proposed a transition period of ‘around two years’ after Britain leaves the EU for the two sides to work out the kinks in the final Brexit deal.
‘People and businesses – both in the UK and in the EU – would benefit from a period to adjust to the new arrangements in a smooth and orderly way,’ she said.
Mrs May also signalled willingness to pay a Brexit bill for leaving, saying Britain ‘will honour commitments we have made’.
She reassured EU members that they would not ‘need to pay more or receive less over the remainder of the current budget plan as a result of our decision to leave’. The current EU budget runs until 2020.
May did not cite a figure, and said ‘some of the claims made on this issue are exaggerated and unhelpful’. Reports of the amount the EU is seeking have gone as high as €100billion.
Mrs May also called for a new security treaty between Britain and the EU, saying close cooperation is key to fighting crime, terrorism and military threats. Again, there were few details, just an acknowledgement that ‘there is no pre-existing model for cooperation’ that fits the bill.
Britain is eager to begin hammerances ing out future trade and security relationships.
But EU officials say that cannot happen until there is progress on three key divorce terms: the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic; the financial settlement; and the rights of more than 4 million EU and British citizens hit by Brexit.
When Britain leaves the bloc it will end the automatic right of EU nationals to live and work in the UK, and that has left many worried for their futures. Previous assur- by Britain that EU nationals already in the country will be able to stay have been rejected as too vague by the EU. ‘We want you to stay; we value you,’ Mrs May said, adding that she wanted to write any deal on citizens’ rights into British law as a guarantee.
British negotiators hope EU leaders will decide at a meeting next month that ‘sufficient progress’ has been made on the divorce terms to move talks on to future relations and trade.
In her speech, Mrs May outlined why Britain wanted to leave the EU, to return to being ‘a sovereign nation in which the British people are in control’.
She said: ‘Their decision to leave the institution of the European Union was an expression of that desire – a statement about how they want their democracy to work. They want more direct control of decisions that affect their daily lives; and that means those decisions being made in Britain by people directly accountable to them.’
She added that Britain ‘never totally felt at home being in the European Union’.
‘Perhaps because of our history and geography, the European Union never felt to us like an integral part of our national story in the way it does to so many elsewhere in Europe,’ she said.
She accepted that the pooling of
‘Smooth and orderly for people and businesses ’ ‘Never totally felt at home in the EU’
countries’ sovereignty in the European Union has its advantages as allows for deep cooperation.
But she said it also means countries have to accept decisions they do not want that can have a significant effect on their internal matters.
‘When such decisions are taken, they can be very hard to change,’ she said. ‘So the British electorate made a choice. They chose the power of domestic democratic control over pooling that control, strengthening the role of the UK Parliament and the devolved Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies in deciding our laws.
‘That is our choice. It does not mean we are no longer a proud member of the family of European nations.
‘And it does not mean we are turning our back on Europe; or worse that we do not wish the EU to succeed. The success of the EU is profoundly in our national interest and that of the wider world.’