EU rules out renegotiation on Brexit deal
brussels — “Clarify?” — yes. “Reassure?” — sure. “Renegotiate?” — no.
The European Union reacted in unison on Tuesday to news that British Prime Minister Theresa May was coming to demand changes to the Brexit deal the sides agreed just two weeks ago after 18 months of painstaking talks.
“There is no room whatsoever for renegotiation,” said JeanClaude Juncker, head of the EU’s executive Commission. “But of course there is room enough to give further clarifications and further interpretations without opening the withdrawal agreement.”
May, who on Monday conceded she lacked votes in her parliament to approve the accord, wants “additional legal reassurances” on the most contentious element of the deal — an emergency fix to avoid extensive border checks between EU-member Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland. —
berlin — Prime Minister Theresa May sought Angela Merkel’s support on Tuesday to save her floundering Brexit deal but the European Union ruled out renegotiating the divorce treaty, after May postponed a parliamentary vote she admitted she would lose.
Less than four months until the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29, May warned British lawmakers that if they rejected her deal then the only other options were a disorderly no-deal divorce, or a reversal of Brexit that would defy the will of those who voted for it.
A day after pulling the vote in the face of hostility from lawmakers, May rushed from London for breakfast in The Hague with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and then a meeting in Berlin with Europe’s most powerful leader, German Chancellor Merkel in a frantic bid to save her deal.
The message from the EU was clear: It will give “clarifications” but will not countenance reopening the treaty.
“The deal we achieved is the best possible. It’s the only deal possible. There is no room whatsoever for renegotiation,” European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker said in an address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
In rainy Berlin, a hitch with May’s car door briefly trapped her inside, delaying her red carpet handshake with Merkel.
The British parliament will vote on a deal before January 21, May’s spokeswoman said. If there is no satisfactory deal by then, parliament will still be given a debate on the issue.
The British pound, which has lost 25 cents against the US dollar since the 2016 referendum, was up 0.4 per cent at $1.2615, a recovery of sorts after falling 1.6 per cent on Monday.
The most contentious issue has been the Irish “backstop”, an insurance policy that would keep Britain in a customs union with the EU in the absence of a better way to avoid border checks between Britishruled Northern Ireland and EU
member Ireland.May’s critics say it could leave Britain subject to EU rules indefinitely. Juncker said neither side intended for the backstop ever to take effect, but it had to be part of the deal.
“We have a common determination to do everything to be not in a situation one day to use that backstop, but we have to prepare,” he
said. “It’s necessary for the entire coherence of what we have agreed. It’s necessary for Britain and it’s necessary for Ireland. Ireland will never be left alone.”
Germany’s European Affairs Minister Michael Roth said the EU did not want UK to leave but added that substantial changes to the withdrawal agreement would not be possible.
“Nobody wants the UK to leave,” Roth said. “I cannot imagine where we could change something substantial in the withdrawal agreement.”
May, due to meet Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk later, said she would seek further assurances and ways to give British lawmakers powers over the Irish backstop. —