European negotiators, U.K. draft Brexit plan

LONDON — Britain’s painful path out of the European Union crossed a crucial threshold Thursday when negotiators from London and Brussels agreed on a text outlining future ties, a document replete with promises of ambition but ambiguous on crucial questions that have cleaved British politics.

The 26-page draft document is nonbinding and would supplement a legal withdrawal agreement that lists the “divorce” terms reached between Britain and the European Union, which it is scheduled to leave March 29.

Nevertheless, its conclusion opens the way for a summit meeting of EU leaders, who are expected to approve the overall plan for the withdrawal, known as Brexit, on Sunday in Brussels.

“The British people want this to be settled,” said Britain’s prime minister, Theresa May. “That deal is within our grasp and I am determined to deliver it.”

May still faces the daunting task of selling her Brexit plan to British lawmakers and hopes to accomplish that using the latest text, which promises many things to many people, as part of what it calls an “ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership.”

While pledging “deep and close” — but not frictionless — future trade ties, it hinted at leeway for Britain to choose a different economic path, reflecting the fundamental decision that British policymakers have so far dodged.

Analysts expect the deal to be signed off by EU leaders Sunday. Assuming it is, May then faces a huge challenge in the British Parliament, where many lawmakers have already expressed their opposition.

Many of them fret about the legally binding withdrawal agreement, laying out measures to prevent the need for checks on goods flowing across the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which will remain in the European Union. Under these plans, the whole of the United Kingdom might remain in a European customs union temporarily, but critics fear that this could become a permanent arrangement.

Yet the declaration is, in truth, a wish list for future negotiations — one that avoided the central question of whether Britain would stay deeply enmeshed in the bloc’s economic structures, and therefore accept its rules, or chart a different course.

Although the draft political declaration was intended to reassure some opponents, its critics immediately dismissed it. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, called it “half-baked,” a “vague menu of options” and “26 pages of waffle.”