Brexit – Time (and patience) running out (Updated with May’s Press Conference)
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Update: British PM told press in Press Conference that in a crystal clear she spoke about the assurances needed on the backstop. Se added that there was agreement that a disorderly Brexit would be good for no one.
May said MPs “require further assurances” and adds “further clarification and discussion is possible”.
She also said that she had a “robust discussion” with Jean-Claude Juncker and says he clarified that he was making a point about the general debate when he used the term “nebulous” and was not referring to the PM.
EU leaders were “very clear” they were committed to the deal and to achieve getting it through parliament.
Theresa May’s hopes of getting EU leaders to help her push her Brexit deal through parliament have been dealt a severe blow as she prepares to return home and face her party.
The prime minister headed to Brussels for a winter summit with a promise to push for legal assurances that the Irish backstop would only be temporary.
She said when she arrived: “I don’t expect an immediate breakthrough but what I do hope is that we can start work as quickly as possible on the assurances that are necessary.”
However “Theresa May’s attempt to rescue her Brexit deal ran into serious trouble in Brussels last night, after despairing EU leaders accused her of having no viable proposals to sell her plan to a hostile British parliament.”
In a late night press conference, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Commission, berated Mrs May by saying it was time for the UK “to say what they want instead of asking us to say what we want”.
To make matters worse, the leaders’ statement at the end of a dinner in Brussels was significantly worse for Mrs May than a draft version circulated before she addressed her counterparts.
After Mrs May left the room, many leaders were despondent. During more than two hours of talks over dinner, EU leaders agreed to scrap plans for a formal process to provide reassurances to Britain until Mrs May decided what she wants.
“This debate is sometimes nebulous and imprecise,” said Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president. “When it comes to the future relationship, our British friends need to say what they want, rather than asking us what we want.”
Denmark’s prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said the EU was being “as flexible as we can be. I think it is now up to the British to come together and create a kind of national consensus in order to tell us exactly what to do to get this through the British parliament.”
The prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, said the discussions with May had been an “honest exchange”.
“Theresa May is clear, but the fact is that Westminster is not that clear. So we know what Theresa wants, and she wants the best possible deal in Westminster, but the problem is the MPs in London,” he said.
“For internal political reasons some people want to gamble with the relations between the European Union and the UK for the future, and it is bad.”
The UK’s prime minister had pinned her hopes on a last-ditch effort to persuade the European Union to work with her in devising a legal guarantee, known as a “joint interpretative instrument”, that she believes could get her Brexit deal through parliament.
The British government is seeking to place a duty on both sides to try to get out of the Irish backstop within 12 months of it coming into force, a proposal supported by Germany’s Angela Merkel and the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz.
