Hard to get any answer
BRUSSELS: European Union leaders yesterday assured Prime Minister Theresa May the Brexit treaty she agreed last month but is struggling to get through the UK Parliament should not bind Britain forever to EU rules.
The leaders, meeting in Brussels, were responding to a plea from May, the day after she survived a bid in her own party to oust her. She sought help to overcome resistance at home to the treaty’s ‘‘Irish backstop’’ — an insurance clause obliging Britain to follow EU trade regulations until a better way is found to avoid a damaging ‘‘hard border’’ across Ireland.
The meeting seemed only to stall for time until after Christmas, when May must win parliamentary approval for her deal or face a risk of a chaotic Brexit in March.
It is questionable the EU has done enough to ensure May can win a vote due within five weeks in a House of Commons bitterly divided over how or even whether to leave the European Union.
It was not clear what more
Brussels might offer, EU officials said.
In a break with the norm when May’s statements to the other 27 leaders had been met largely with silence, she was peppered with demands for close to an hour to spell out more clearly what she was seeking. Leaders all ruled out new, legally binding amendments.
‘‘Trust me,’’ May had told her peers, according to a British official. Warning of the risk of an ‘‘accidental’’ failure to get a deal, she said a majority in Parliament wanted to avoid that but needed assurances the backstop was not a ‘‘trap’’.
One person briefed on the exchanges said May was ‘‘grilled’’ by leaders. ‘‘Everybody asked: ‘What exactly do you want?’,’’ he said. ‘‘She had no solid answers.’’ — Reuters