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(LONDON) – Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday rejected calls to delay Britain's departure from the European Union and said Plan B had to win her agreement on Brexit rejected by Parliament after made changes to a controversial measure at the Irish border.
Describing what she plans to do after her divorce agreement with the European Union was rejected by Parliament last week, May said that she had taken into account the concerns of lawmakers about An insurance policy called "backstop" designed to ensure the absence of customs controls along the border. between Ireland, member of the EU, and British Northern Ireland after Brexit.
May said that she "would discuss this week with her colleagues more extensively … in order to consider how we could meet our obligations to the citizens of Northern Ireland and Ireland in order to obtain the greatest possible support for the House.
"And I will then report the conclusions of these discussions to the EU."
The brief bulletin
The bloc insists that it will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.
"This is the text in which we have all invested," said Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, at a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.
British lawmakers are expected to debate and vote on the revised May plan – and the possible amendments – on January 29, exactly two months before Britain leaves the EU.
Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn of the Labor Party said May's plan B was only a second attempt to bring his condemned deal to a successful conclusion.
"It really looks like a Groundhog Day," he said, referring to the 1993 film starring Bill Murray, in which a meteorologist is supposed to live the same day over and over again.
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After his agreement was rescinded last week by a 432-202 vote in Parliament, Mr.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 Corbyn called the multiparty meetings a "waterfall", and other opposition leaders said the prime minister had ignored their instances to dismiss a Brexit "without agreement" and maintain close economic ties with the EU.
On Monday, May rejected calls from pro-European legislators to delay Britain's departure or hold a second referendum on the opportunity to leave.
It has made some concessions to opposition demands, including removing a 65-pound (84-pound) tax for EU citizens living in Britain who wish to remain permanently after Brexit.
But May's main goal is to convince pro-Brexit conservatives and her Northern Irish ally, the Democratic Unionist Party. Both groups said they would not support the transaction unless border security was removed.
The backstop proposes to keep the UK in a customs union with the EU in order to avoid border controls and infrastructure between Northern Ireland and Ireland. This is a temporary measure that will last until a permanent solution is found. But British lawmakers in favor of Brexit fear that Britain will be trapped indefinitely bound by EU trade rules.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz broke the ranks of his EU colleagues on Monday, suggesting that the problem could be solved by setting a deadline of up to five years.
The idea was well received. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said that "setting a time limit for an insurance mechanism, which is what the backstop is, actually means that it is not not a backstop at all ".
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.
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 if the EU would not amend the legally binding withdrawal agreement, it was ready to adjust the political declaration – a statement non-binding on future relationships which constitutes 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."
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