Britain wants two-year EU transition, says May
THE UK could continue to be subject to existing EU rules and regulations until 2021 under the terms of an implementation period lasting two years after the date of Brexit proposed by Prime Minister Theresa May.
In a landmark Brexit speech, Mrs May also pledged that other EU nations would not be left out of pocket by Britain’s decision to pull out, paving the way for an estimated payment of around £18bn (about €20bn) into Brussels budgets up to 2020.
Mrs May put no figure on the amount the UK will pay in its so-called “divorce bill” and stuck to her position that the final total cannot be agreed until the future trade relationship is settled. But she insisted that estimates of Britain’s liabilities, which have ranged from £50£80bn, were “exaggerated and unhelpful”.
The address in the Italian city of Florence was described as “constructive” by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. But he insisted that Mrs May’s comments “must now be translated into a precise negotiating position” in order to make meaningful progress in talks which reopen in Brussels on Monday.
Mr Barnier stressed that any transition period must be subject to existing EU rules, which include free movement of people. Any he said he wanted to discuss the “concrete implications” of Mrs May’s promises on money, which he cautioned may not cover all the UK’s liabilities.
In possibly her most important speech yet on Brexit, Mrs May called on fellow European leaders to show “creativity and flexibility” in forging a partnership.
THE UK could continue to be subject to existing EU rules and regulations until 2021 under the terms of an implementation period lasting two years after the date of Brexit proposed by Prime Minister Theresa May.
In a landmark Brexit speech, Mrs May also pledged that other EU nations would not be left out of pocket by Britain’s decision to pull out, paving the way for an estimated payment of around £18bn (about €20bn) into Brussels budgets up to 2020.
Mrs May put no figure on the amount the UK will pay in its socalled “divorce bill” and stuck to her position that the final total cannot be agreed until the future trade relationship is settled.
But she insisted that estimates of Britain’s liabilities, which have ranged from £50-£80bn, were “exaggerated and unhelpful”.
Speaking in a Renaissance church in the Italian city of Florence, Mrs May rejected the models for the future UK-EU relationship offered by Norway’s membership of the European Economic Area or Canada’s free trade deal on goods, which came into effect on Thursday.
She called on fellow European leaders to show “creativity and flexibility” in forging a unique partnership, which would include a “comprehensive and ambitious” trade deal and a new treaty guaranteeing future co-operation on security, law enforcement and criminal justice.
“As we meet here today, in this city of creativity and rebirth, let us open our minds to the possible,” said the Prime Minister. “To a new era of cooperation and partnership between the United Kingdom and the European Union. And to a stronger, fairer, more prosperous future for us all.
“For that is the prize if we get this negotiation right. A sovereign United Kingdom and a confident European Union, both free to chart their own course. A new partnership of values and interests. A new alliance that can stand strongly together in the world.”
Mrs May’s 35-minute address was hailed as “positive, optimistic and dynamic” by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who was present in the audience just six days after publishing a 4,000-word personal Brexit manifesto which exposed Cabinet rifts over the future relationship with Europe.
Fellow Leave campaigner Michael Gove said the PM’s “excellent” speech was delivering on the will of the British people.
Mr Johnson said the Prime Minister had “rightly” disposed of the Norway option, which would have seen Britain continuing to make payments into EU budgets and accept free movement of people in return for access to the single market and customs union.
But he accepted that the UK would have to wait to take back powers from Brussels, telling reporters: “As the Prime Minister rightly said we are going to have a transition period and after that of course we are going to be taking back control of our borders, of our laws, of our destiny.”
The leader of the centre-right EPP grouping in the European Parliament Manfred Weber, a German MEP and close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said: “In substance, PM May is bringing no more clarity to London’s positions. I am even more concerned now.”
Restating her message in her Lancaster House speech in January, Mrs May said Britain would have to leave both the single market and customs union.
She did not repeat the mantra that “no deal is better than a bad deal” in her speech, but asked later whether this remained the Government’s position, she told reporters: “We continue to believe that.”
In a warning to EU leaders who must decide next month whether sufficient progress has been made in divorce talks to move on to discussion of the future relationship, Mrs May said that if no agreement was reached “it would be a failure in the eyes of history and a damaging blow to the future of our continent”.
Accepting that neither the Government nor the EU will be ready to fully implement Brexit on March 29 2019, the PM proposed an implementation period during which “the existing structure of EU rules and regulations” would apply.
“As of today, these considerations point to an implementation period of around two years,” she said, although in some areas changes to new arrangements could be made more quickly.
Mrs May said there would be a “clear double lock” to the implementation period, giving businesses the certainty to plan for change and a guarantee that the temporary transitional arrangements “will not go on forever”.
In an attempt to break the deadlock over the UK’s financial settlement, Mrs May promised the UK would honour its commitments under the existing budget period, which lasts until 2020, and continue to participate in some other programmes on areas including science, education and culture beyond Brexit.
“I do not want our partners to fear that they will need to pay more or receive less over the remainder of the current budget plan as a result of our decision to leave,” she said.
“The UK will honour commitments we have made during the period of our membership. And as we move forwards, we will also want to continue working together in ways that promote the long-term economic development of our continent.”
Mrs May said that her proposed treaty on security would be “unprecedented in its breadth, taking in cooperation on diplomacy, defence and security, and development. And it will be unprecedented in its depth, in terms of the degree of engagement that we would aim to deliver”.
Mrs May arrived at the Santa Maria Novella church in central Florence in a Maserati limousine to make her address to a largely British audience, many of whom had flown to Italy that morning in order to hear her.
Alongside Mr Johnson in the small audience at the Florentine basilica were Chancellor Philip Hammond, Brexit Secretary David Davis and large numbers of Westminster reporters, as well as some diplomats and members of the Italian business community, but no leaders of the 27 remaining EU states.
Downing Street declined to say how much it had spent on hiring the hall in the church’s complex.
Mrs May said that the British people had decided in last year’s refer-
endum to be “a global, free-trading nation, able to chart our own way in the world”.
She accepted that some voters were “worried” by the prospect of Brexit, but insisted that she was looking ahead with “optimism”.
She assured EU nationals living in the UK that she wanted them to be able to “carry on living your lives as before”, and said that protections for them would be written into UK law. But she said that new migrants arriving during the implementation period would be required to register with authorities.
In a significant concession, she said that UK courts would be able to “take into account” rulings of the European Court of Justice on EU law following Brexit.
And she said that a new judicial mechanism would have to be developed to resolve disputes over the implementation of the withdrawal agreement, as it would not be appropriate for either the European Court of Justice or the UK courts to be the final arbiter.
Mrs May dismissed suggestions that Brexit would undermine environmental, workplace and safety safeguards offered by EU regulation, insisting that “the Government I lead is committed not only to protecting high standards but strengthening them”.
She said there would be no need for new tariffs on trade between the UK and EU and promised that any future UK divergence from EU rules would not be designed to gain an “unfair competitive advantage”.
“The eyes of the world are on us,” said Mrs May.
“But if we can be imaginative and creative about the way we establish this new relationship, if we can proceed on the basis of trust in each other, I believe we can be optimistic about the future we can build for the United Kingdom and for the European Union.”
THERESA May’s speech in Florence was seen as an attempt to break the talks deadlock but it is unclear how much will have changed when EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary David Davis sit down together on Monday in Brussels.
Mr Barnier will want concrete proposals for how the negotiations can move forward on issues as vexing as the rights of EU citizens in a post-Brexit Britain and the future of the Irish border.
Leaders in the other EU member states will welcome Mrs May’s pledge that the UK will honour its financial commitments – but there is the potential for fiery disputes about the scale of the dues Britain is expected to pay.
It remains unclear what type of final deal the UK Government wants and what it is prepared to do if the EU fails to offer an acceptable deal. Mrs May made it clear that neither the arrangements the union has agreed with Norway nor Canada are acceptable.
Such deals were the product of earnest negotiations and Canada’s nearly collapsed during the process of ratification. Even if there is a two-year transition period, it will require Herculean diplomatic efforts to devise and agree arrangements which will be acceptable to Britain and the remaining 27 member states.
Mrs May certainly did not spell out what type of deal she envisages – but the significance of her speech was not lost on Mr Barnier.
Very soon after its conclusion, he stated: “Today, for the first time, the United Kingdom Government has requested to continue to benefit from access to the Single Market, on current terms, and to continue to benefit from existing cooperation in security. This is for a limited period of up to two years, beyond its withdrawal date, and therefore beyond its departure from the EU institutions.”
The UK would have an experience for two years of what it means to be in single market but without a presence in the “institutions”. It would be a taste of life without MEPs or ministers at council meetings.
Critics of a Norway-style deal have rejected a future in which the UK has to abide by EU rules but has minimal influence on setting these. Yet this could be what awaits Britain for two years while it attempts to thrash out a deal.
If a satisfactory final settlement proves elusive it is easy to envisage the already stark Brexit divisions in the UK widening yet further, with one side arguing to walk away without a deal and another advocating a return into the EU fold.
As time passes EU leaders, industry and citizens will have more time to adjust to the idea of a union without the UK. France and Germany will want to accelerate integration – and will certainly not want to encourage further fragmentation by giving Britain an exit deal that could encourage millions of eurosceptics throughout the EU to also push for a breakaway.
The UK has a window of opportunity to articulate and negotiate a Brexit deal which will protect the economy and livelihoods but this will not last forever.