May pledges to hold backstop ‘assurance’
“The ball is now politically in the British court.”
And Mr Tusk said he had “no mandate” to organise any further negotiations.
Mrs May’s hopes of a legally binding commitment on the backstop from the EU27 were dashed on Thursday, when Mr Juncker said there could be “no real changes” to the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated over 18 months.
The Prime Minister addressed the EU27 leaders on Thursday about MPs’ concerns about the backstop which had prevented her getting her Brexit deal through Parliament this week.
Mr Tusk said the leaders had expressed a “firm determination” to work “speedily” to ensure there is an agreement on the future relationship in place by the time the transition period ends in December 2020, so the backstop is not needed.
But Mr Juncker criticised Britain’s lack of clarity over what it was seeking from the future relationship.
“Our UK friends need to say what they want, instead of asking us to say what we want,” he said.
“So we would like, within a few weeks, our UK friends to set out their expectations for us because this debate is sometimes nebulous and imprecise and I would like clarifications.”
The EU hardball approach appears to leave Mrs May with limited room for manoeuvre during the countdown to the UK’s departure on March 29.
The Prime Minister told the summit that a package of assurances around the backstop could “change the dynamic” at Westminster.
At the same time, she made clear a failure by EU leaders to offer concessions risked the collapse of the whole agreement, with the UK leaving in March in a disorderly, no-deal Brexit.
Mrs May managed a smile at her press conference when a reporter asked if she had had a “trying week”, jokingly replying: “Has something happened this week?”
When asked whether the problems with her party at home and dealing with the EU had made her want to quit as leader, she said it is “our duty as a Government and as a Parliament” to see Brexit through.
She added: “I never said it was going to be easy.
“Negotiations like this are always tough. There are always difficult times and as you get closer to the very end, that can get even more difficult because you are sorting out the last details of something.”
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn said Mrs May’s plan was “dead in the water” after she “utterly failed in her attempts to deliver any meaningful changes”, and reiterated Labour’s call for it to be put to a vote before Christmas.
Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington rejected that idea and defended Mrs May’s handling of the talks, telling Today: “Anybody who has heard Theresa May in debate, anybody who has heard her around the Cabinet table, knows there is a very clear plan.”
He described the talks as “a welcome first step that was the removal of uncertainty” over the EU’s intentions, because it has shown it wants a “speedy UK trade deal” that would remove the need for the backstop in the first place.