Brexit: British Parliament votes Theresa May's alternative plan for the exit of the European Union

Two months before the planned date of "Brexit" and after the mbadive rejection of the agreement with Brussels, British MPs vote Tuesday a series of alternative plans, going to try to force a renegotiation to postpone the exit of the EU.

Brussels is repeatedly refused to reopen the negotiation of a text qualifying as "the best possible, the only possible".

And the Irish government is opposed to any modification of this device, whose goal is to preserve the peace agreement of Good Friday, which ended in 1998 three decades of bloody confrontation between Republican Catholics and Unionist Protestants.

So, May needs strong parliamentary support for this new plan to convince the 27 EU members to agree to sit down and talk again when the date set for Brexit on March 29 is fast approaching.

However, in an attempt to regain control of the process, different groups of deputies presented amendments to the May plan and discussed projects on Tuesday, which will be voted on Tuesday from 19:00 (GMT).

One of these amendments, introduced by Labor MP Yvette Cooper, who seems to have the support of her party, would open the door in the House of Commons to debate and vote. a bill to avoid the most formidable of options: that the country is forced to leave the European Union brutally without agreement.

Cooper's proposal states that if on February 26 the Parliament has not yet ratified the Brexit agreement, the government must delay until 31 December 2019 the departure of the United Kingdom from the bloc. And this postponement could be extended if the MPs so decided.

The "freedom clause"

Other amendments may seek to force the government to renegotiate the agreement with Brussels. But, in the opinion of some parliamentary experts, the attempt to take control by the deputies would be unconstitutional.

"They can not legally force the government to negotiate an agreement they oppose", said Professor Vernon Bogdanor, of King's College London, in the pages of Time, indicating that for this purpose a change of executive should be forced.

That the agreement may end up being approved depends almost exclusively on its ability to convince The EU should re-examine the so-called "backstop", the mechanism that should allow the border between the Republic of Ireland (EU member state) and the British province of Northern Ireland. to stay open after Brexit.

The Eurosceptics of their own conservative party and the Northern Ireland Unionists of the DUP on whom they depend for their support of power, they said that they could support the text if the "backstop" had a time limit that they called "freedom clause".

"If we really think so, if we really try, I have no doubt that the EU will give us the freedom clause we need," said former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, in a statement. Daily Telegraph on Monday. "And if the Prime Minister guarantees this change (…) I do not doubt that she will have the whole country behind her ", he added.

According to the agreement in force, the "backstop" should only take effect if no better solution is found in future relations that London and Brussels will have to negotiate during the transition period, expected until the end of 2020 but extended until 2022.

Under this device, Northern Ireland would continue to be governed by the rules of the single European market and the rest of the United Kingdom would remain in a customs union with the EU.

London could not unilaterally end this system, something to fear the Eurosceptics who keep the country trapped indefinitely in the European networks.

With information from the AFP – Anna Cuenca