U.K. leader to try to renegotiate her Brexit deal with Europe
London — British Prime Minister Theresa May appears to have accepted that the divorce deal her government spent two years negotiating with the European Union cannot win the approval of her own country’s lawmakers as written. Facing the prospect of another doomed vote in the British Parliament, she agreed on Tuesday to take her draft “Brexit” plan back to Brussels to try and get the Europeans to accept changes to a key provision on the Irish border.
European Union officials have been adamant for months, however, that there is no room to renegotiate the so-called “backstop” element of the current draft Brexit plan, which is designed to keep the Ireland-Northern Ireland border open regardless of whether a final customs deal is reached.
May’s plan was rejected in dramatic fashion by parliament on January 15 largely due to opposition to the backstop. Now she’s hoping a majority of British lawmakers will agree to back it — if it includes a new or altered arrangement to keep the Irish border “soft.”
There is a March 29 deadline, when Britain is scheduled to leave the EU with or without a deal, and fears are mounting that an exit without an agreement in place could cause chaos at ports, medicine and food shortages, and severely damage the British and, to a lesser degree, European economies.
Mrs. May’s gamble is that Europe — keen to avoid such a messy “no-deal” Brexit and frustrated by the fact that Britain has failed as yet to speak with one voice on the matter, might give her some new leeway if she presents a plan with solid parliamentary backing.
The mere possibility that Britain could crash out of the union without a deal has been May’s greatest leverage in the negotiations with Europe. But she could lose it on Tuesday night. Anti-Brexit lawmakers are set to try and wrest some control over the process.
Brexit amendment votes
Parliament was to vote Tuesday on seven rival amendments, put forward by lawmakers from all parties, which could significantly alter the trajectory of the Brexit process.
May has urged them to support one measure that calls for the current backstop to be replaced with “alternative arrangements” — but the amendment, crafted by members of May’s own Conservative Party, is unlikely to pass as pro-Brexit lawmakers believe it would fail to force significant changes to the measure.
At least two other amendments, with a much greater chance of passage, would encourage — or even legally compel — the British government to delay the entire Brexit process if no deal is agreed by set points before March 29.
The EU has said it’s willing to grant such an extension, which could be a couple years, but only if there is a clear path for negotiations, granted by consensus in London.
“If there is no plan at all for what should then be different, then a delay makes only very limited sense,” German Justice Minister Katarina Barley said Tuesday.
Speaking hours before the vote, May beseeched parliament to reject any amendment that would take the prospect of a no-deal Brexit off the table. She said any such amendment would tie “one hand behind my back” when it comes to her negotiating power with Brussels.
She said Britain must avoid presenting Europe with “a cacophony of voices when this house needs to speak as one.”
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