Small breakthrough in view with May's "Plan B" Brexit

(LONDON) – Prime Minister Theresa May was to unveil on Monday her new plan to break Britain's stalemate over Brexit – a plan that should look a lot like the old plan that was decisively rejected by Parliament last week.

May was to inform the House of Commons of how she intended to proceed. There were few signs that she was considering drastically altering her contract, although she could request changes to her most contentious section, an insurance policy known as "backstop" , intended to ensure the absence of customs controls at the border between EU members. Ireland and British Northern Ireland after Brexit.

The EU insists that it will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement and says that support is an integral part of the deal.

"This is the text in which we have all invested ourselves," said Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl when she arrived in Brussels for a meeting of EU ministers.

The brief bulletin

Sign up to receive the best stories you need to know right now. See an example

British lawmakers are expected to vote on the "Plan B" of May, as well as possible amendments, on January 29, two months before Britain leaves the EU.

Britain and the EU signed a divorce agreement in November after months of tense negotiations. But the deal was rejected by both sides of the British division on Europe. Lawmakers supporting Brexit say that it will leave the UK tied to the rules of the bloc and unable to forge an independent trade policy. Pro-Europeans argue that it is inferior to the frictionless economic relations that Britain currently enjoys as an EU member.

After his agreement was rescinded last week by a 432-202 vote in Parliament, Mr. May announced that she would consult lawmakers from all parties to find a new way forward.

But Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the multi-party meetings a "tour de force", and other opposition leaders said the prime minister had failed to take into account their demands to exclude a Brexit "without agreement" and to maintain close economic ties with the EU.

Instead, May seems ready to try to convince pro-Brexit conservatives and her Northern Irish ally, the Democratic Unionist Party. Both groups say they will not support the transaction unless border security is removed.

May's spokesman, James Slack, said May's talks with opposition lawmakers were "sincere" and that a "large number" had voiced concerns about the backstop.

He said it was clear "that we will have to come up with something different" to get Parliament's approval.

The British political stalemate over Brexit is fueling concerns that the country could leave the EU on March 29 without an agreement in place to cushion the shock. This could lead to tariffs on goods traded between Britain and the EU, creating blockages in ports and shortages of essential supplies.

Brexit Labor Party spokesman Keir Starmer said on Sunday that a Brexit without agreement would be "catastrophic" and that it was "inevitable" that Britain would have to ask for the "Brexit". EU to extend the countdown by two years.

Several groups of lawmakers are trying to enforce parliamentary rules and amendments to May's plan to block the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without agreement.

Yvette Cooper, of one of these legislators, said that May evades her responsibility to the country by refusing to refuse "no agreement" at the table.

"I think she knows that she should rule out" no deal "in the national interest because it would be so damaging," Cooper told the BBC. "She refuses to do it and I think she hopes Parliament will do it for her. This is not leadership. "

EU leaders have expressed frustration at British indecision.

"We now know what they do not want in London," said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. "Now we must finally know what they want."

The chief EU negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, said that although the EU does not change the legally binding withdrawal agreement, it was ready to adjust the political statement – a Non-binding statement on future relationships that forms the second part of the divorce agreement.

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said it was crucial to determine what kind of agreement the UK Parliament would support.

"We can not continue to negotiate this way and when everything is negotiated, the British Parliament refuses," he said in Brussels. "We must have the guarantee that the proposal will have the support of parliament to no longer be refused."

Contact us to [email protected].