Speed up talks: business chiefs

May under pressure as Brexit crunch looms

LONDON, Nov 13, (AP): Business leaders from both sides of the English Channel urged Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday to accelerate talks on Britain’s exit from the European Union as uncertainty about future trade relations threatens jobs and investment.

European business leaders are urging Britain to make concrete proposals on the so-called divorce issues so the negotiations can move forward. The EU has refused to discuss trade until there is agreement on Britain’s financial obligations, citizens’ rights and the Irish border.

Industry groups from Germany, France, Britain and other EU countries deployed representatives to London amid concern that time is running out to ensure more than 550 billion pounds ($719 billion) of trade keeps flowing smoothly after the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019. They want a transitional period during which Britain would remain in the European single market and customs union so companies could adjust to the new relationship after Brexit.

“Business is extremely concerned with the slow pace of negotiations and the lack of progress,” said Emma Marcegaglia, president of BusinessEurope, an umbrella organization of business lobbies. “Business aims to avoid a cliff edge and therefore asks for a “status quo-like” transitional arrangement with the UK staying in the customs union and the single market as this will best provide citizens and businesses with greater certainty.”

May had pledged to outline her hopes for a “bold and deep economic partnership” between Britain and the EU after Brexit.

But tensions within her own government may make it difficult for the prime minister to deliver on her vision. After two ministers resigned from the Cabinet in recent weeks, Foreign Minister Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove are now under fire for their comments about a British woman imprisoned in Iran.

The pound fell a cent against the dollar, to below $1.31 in afternoon trading in London, on concern about the government’s weakness. A Sunday Times report that a group of lawmakers had signed a letter of no-confidence in May weighed on sterling’s performance.

“The 40 MPs is short of the 48 required to force a vote on her leadership and with Labour looking strong, going to the country again is the last thing most Conservative MPs want,” said Neil Wilson, an ETX Capital analyst. “Nevertheless, investors are rightly exercising caution on (the pound) given the risks with regards to the Brexit process.”

Commitments

Meanwhile, The European Parliament’s president, Antonio Tajani, said Monday that Britain needs to pay the EU at least 60 billion euros ($69.9 billion) to cover the commitments it made as a member of the bloc. If the EU accepts less than that, European taxpayers will have to “make up the difference,” Germany’s Funke newspaper group quoted him as saying.

“Why should the Germans, Italians, Spanish or Dutch pay the Britons’ bill?” he said.

A senior German official said he’s worried about Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal.

“We should all be prepared for the worst case actually happening in March 2019,” Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Steffen said, according to the dpa news agency. “And then we will see whether anyone in London or anywhere else can produce a different scenario. Today, I don’t see it.”

The divorce bill is the biggest stumbling block in negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc, due in March 2019. The EU is demanding that Britain turn promises to pay its financial dues into concrete commitments.

Asked in an interview with Germany’s Funke newspaper group published Monday how much Britain should pay, Tajani was quoted as saying: “In my opinion, it should be at least 60 billion euros.”

May is caught in a vise of pressure from both sides of the Brexit debate as she tries to get a key plank in the government’s plans for leaving the EU through Parliament.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill returns this week to the House of Commons, where it will face a flurry of amendments from lawmakers.

The bill is designed to prevent a legal vacuum by converting some 12,000 EU laws into British statute on the day the UK leaves the bloc in 2019. Legislators are scheduled to hold several days of debate and votes starting Tuesday.

But many lawmakers claim the bill gives the government too much power to amend legislation without parliamentary scrutiny. They will try to pass amendments to water down those powers. And opponents of Brexit — both from the opposition and from May’s Conservative Party — will seek to give Parliament a binding vote on the final divorce deal between Britain and the EU.

Meanwhile, supporters of Brexit are pressuring May not to give ground by compromising with the EU or with antiBrexit lawmakers.

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove, leading euroskeptics in May’s Cabinet, warned the prime minister in a note to stand firm in the ambition of making Britain “a fully independent self-governing country by the time of the next election” in 2022, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.

The note published by the newspaper accused some ministers of not preparing for Brexit with “sufficient energy.”

May, weakened by the Conservatives’ poor showing in a snap June election, has little room to maneuver. She relies on a small Northern Ireland party to prop up her minority government and is caught between warring factions in her Cabinet.