May signs for ‘divorce’
UK future remains uncertain
BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May was to file formal Brexit divorce papers today, pitching the UK into the unknown and triggering years of uncertain negotiations that will test the endurance of the EU.
Nine months after Britons voted to leave, May will notify EU Council president Donald Tusk in a letter that the UK really is quitting the bloc it joined in 1973.
The prime minister will then have two years to settle the terms of the divorce before it comes into effect in late March 2019.
“Now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, it is time to come together,” May will tell lawmakers, according to comments supplied by her office.
“When I sit around the negotiating table in the months ahead, I will represent every person in the whole United Kingdom – young and old, rich and poor, city, town, country and all the villages and hamlets in between,” May will say.
On the eve of Brexit, May, 60, has one of the toughest jobs of any recent British prime minister: holding Britain together in the face of renewed Scottish independence demands, while conducting arduous talks with 27 other EU states on finance, trade, security and a host of other complex issues.
The outcome of the negotiations will shape the future of Britain’s economy and determine whether London can keep its place as one of the top two global financial centres.
For the EU, already reeling from successive crises over debt and refugees, the loss of Britain is the biggest blow yet to 60 years of efforts to forge European unity in the wake of two world wars.
Its leaders say they do not want to punish Britain. But with nationalist, anti-EU parties on the rise across the bloc, they cannot afford to give London generous terms that might encourage other member states to follow its example and break away.
May’s notice of the UK’s intention to leave the bloc under Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty is due to be hand-delivered to Tusk in Brussels by Tim Barrow, Britain’s permanent representative to the EU.
May, who yesterday signed the Brexit letter, will update the British parliament today while Tusk is due to give a briefing to reporters.
The Brexit letter will seek to set a positive tone for the talks and recap 12 key points which May set out as her goals in a speech on January 17.
Within 48 hours of reading the letter, Tusk will send the 27 other states draft negotiating guidelines. Ambassadors of the 27 will then meet in Brussels to discuss Tusk’s draft.
The course of the Brexit talks is uncertain.
May has promised to seek the greatest possible access to European markets but said Britain will aim to establish its own free trade deals with countries beyond Europe, and impose limits on immigration from the continent.
She has acknowledged that those measures would require withdrawing from the EU “single market” of 500 million people, founded on the principles of free movement of goods, services, capital and people.
Her priorities also include leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and securing “frictionless” trade with the bloc while ending full membership of the customs union.
She wants to negotiate Britain’s divorce and the future trading relationship with the EU within the two-year period, though EU officials say that will be hard.
A number of questions remain, including whether exporters will keep tariff-free access to the single market and whether British-based banks will still be able to serve continental clients, immigration and the rights of EU citizens in the UK and Britons living in Europe. – Reuters