Late deal may resolve Irish border issue
The British government said yesterday that frenzied last-minute diplomacy had won ‘‘legally binding changes’’ to overcome a roadblock in its divorce deal with the European Union, hours before Parliament was due to decide the fate of Prime Minister Theresa May’s hard-won agreement — and of Britain’s departure from the EU.
On the eve of today’s vote, May flew to the French city of Strasbourg, where EU legislators were meeting, for nighttime talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The prime minister was seeking revisions, guarantees or other changes to persuade reluctant British legislators to back her withdrawal agreement with the EU, which they resoundingly rejected in January.
Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington yesterday announced in the House of Commons that the two sides had agreed on ‘‘legally binding changes’’ to a portion of the deal relating to the Irish border.
He said the changes should overcome lawmakers’ qualms about a mechanism in the deal designed to keep an open border between Britain’s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. The mechanism, known as the backstop, is a safeguard that would keep the UK in a customs union with the EU until a permanent new trading relationship is in place.
Brexit-supporting lawmakers in Britain fear the backstop could be used to bind the country to EU regulations indefinitely.
Lidington said the new guarantee ‘‘provides confirmation that the EU cannot try to trap the U.K. in the backstop indefinitely.’’
Lidington said lawmakers faced ‘‘a fundamental choice ... to vote for the improved deal or to plunge this country into a political crisis.’’
Pro-Brexit lawmakers said they would read the fine print before deciding how to vote today.
Lidington spoke before May and Juncker emerged from their talks. Earlier, Juncker kissed May twice on the cheeks when she arrived at the commission’s headquarters in the European Parliament building. EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier kissed her hand before they went inside for talks.
When negotiations between the EU and the British government were at a low ebb, Juncker shook the British leader’s hand before a similar meeting.
The EU is unwilling to reopen an agreement it spent a year and a half negotiating, while British legislators remain split over whether to leave the bloc and, if so, on what terms.
Britain is due to pull out of the EU in less than three weeks, on March 29, but the government has not been able to win parliamentary approval for its agreement with the bloc on withdrawal terms and future relations. –AP