Drop red lines and door is still open, says EU
EU legal advice on Article 50 extension would delay Brexit but avoid no deal and elections for MEPS
EUROPEAN Union leaders have urged Theresa May to abandon her Brexit red lines after her crushing defeat in the House of Commons, as EU legal advice emerged that would allow the Article 50 negotiations to be extended beyond July.
Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, warned that the EU had never been so worried about the prospect of a damaging no-deal – but he added that the door was still open for a closer relationship with the bloc.
“If the UK chooses to shift its red lines in the future, and it makes that choice – a choice to be ambitious, and go beyond a simple free trade agreement, which would be quite something – then the European Union will be immediately ready to go hand-in-hand with that development and to give a favourable response,” said Mr Barnier.
The French official has always insisted that the Withdrawal Agreement rejected by MPS was largely determined by British red lines such as the ending of freedom of movement and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. A closer relationship would make UK-EU trade smoother but would mean pinking some of those red lines.
Legal advice to the European Parliament said that the Article 50 extension could last beyond the May elections and the first sitting of the new parliament in July. A solution would be found to get round the need for Britain to elect a new crop of MEPS, which would raise the prospect of Brexit being delayed for months but avoid a no-deal.
However, this would not be simple and the EU wants to avoid it. “The possibility for the European Parliament to be validly constituted following the 2019 elections would not be affected by a potential failure by the UK to organise elections as regards seats allocated to it,” the advice said.
Meanwhile in Dublin, the Irish deputy prime minister accidentally revealed there would be a hard Irish border in a no-deal scenario.
Simon Coveney told Shane Ross, a minister, there would be customs checks between Ireland and the UK after a no-deal.
He had earlier told the Irish Independent that Dublin was not planning any such checks, but did not realise his microphone was still on when he admitted the truth.
“Once you start talking about checks anywhere near the border, people will start delving into that and all of a sudden we’ll be the government that reintroduced a physical border on the island of Ireland,” he told Mr Ross. The controversial Irish border backstop, which is designed to prevent the return of a hard border in Ireland by putting the UK in a bare bones customs union was a major obstacle to the deal passing through the House of Commons. But Mr Barnier insisted it was non-negotiable.
Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday, the morning after Theresa May’s deal was overwhelmingly rejected, Mr Barnier said Brexit was “at a standstill” in a divided House of Commons.
“It is up to the British Government to indicate how to take things forward,” he said.
If Britain and the EU do not agree a withdrawal agreement by March 29, or an extension of the Article 50 negotiation period, the UK will leave the bloc in a disruptive and economically damaging exit. “We are only 10 weeks away from the end of the month of March,” Mr Barnier told MEPS. “We are fearing more than ever that there is a risk of a no-deal.”
Frans Timmermans, the first vicepresident of the European Commission and Jean-claude Juncker’s deputy, quoted CS Lewis: “You can’t go back and change the beginning. But you can start where you are and change the ending.”
“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you get what you need,” he said later, quoting the Rolling Stones after the EU had been likened to Hotel California “which you can never leave”.
He warned that the Irish border backstop was “non-negotiable”. “No one in the 27 capitals will throw Ireland under the bus.
“But it is mind-boggling that so many people in Westminster would not see the essential value of the Good Friday Agreement, and for their pipe
‘It is mindboggling that so many in Westminster would not see the value of the Good Friday Agreement’
dream would sacrifice stability and peace in Ireland,” he said. The EU could be prepared to discuss limited redrafting of the non-binding political decla- ration, which sets the guidelines for the future trade talks, but the withdrawal agreement is not up for renegotiation.
Peter Altmaier, Germany’s influen- tial economy minister, said, “The UK should have sufficient time to clarify its position and, if needed, the European Union should allow for additional time in order to achieve a clear position by the British parliament and people.”
Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, on Tuesday night predicted that Britain would ask for more time to “renegotiate something” after Mrs May tried and failed to extract more concessions from Brussels.
“It creates a great deal of uncertainty and worries,” he said at a meeting of mayors in Normandy.