[ad_1]
LONDON (Reuters) – The highest court in Europe is scheduled to hold an emergency hearing Tuesday on the possibility for the United Kingdom to unilaterally reverse its decision to leave the EU. Proponents of accession would hope to pave the way for a second referendum and finally stop Brexit.
The Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ) is invited to interpret whether Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon – the mechanism by which Great Britain has notified the European Union of its intention to leave – can be revoked.
Britain must leave the world's largest trading bloc on March 29 next year, but it is unclear whether the draft withdrawal agreement signed by British Prime Minister Theresa May with the EU on Sunday will be approved by Parliament.
She warned that Britain could leave without an agreement or that there could be no Brexit. The latter statement gave further meaning to the outcome of the case before the ECJ – whose supremacy over British legal issues was cited by May as a reason to leave the EU.
If it concluded that Britain could unilaterally reverse Brexit, it could offer British legislators a viable third option as an alternative to May's agreement or what ministers describe as a chaotic scenario of non-agreement: staying in the block after another referendum.
The UK government fought to prevent the ECJ from hearing the case, saying the case was not relevant because the ministers had no intention of overthrowing the case. Brexit, while May systematically ruled out a second referendum.
"Theresa May wants us to sing for her to vote for her bad deal thinking that the only alternative is the disaster of crushing without agreement," said Joanna Cherry, Scottish National Party legislator and group member of Scottish politicians at the origin of the file. Reuters.
"We say that (Article 50) can be revoked unilaterally – whether it is the case or if the court simply says that it can be revoked with permission – we have the answers we need to be able to As MEPs, being able to say that is a concrete option for stopping Brexit. "
sent
The case was referred to the Luxembourg judges for a ruling from the highest court in Scotland. It was "accelerated" by the ECJ for the Tuesday hearing before a plenary court.
Article 50 stipulates that if a State decides to withdraw, it has two years to conclude an exit agreement with the remaining 27 EU members, although this process may be extended if the European Council agrees to it unanimously.
There is no question of whether a state can change one's mind. No other Member State has ever left the 60-year-old block.
However, the British diplomat who drafted the clause, John Kerr, repeated many times that it could be unilaterally annulled.
"The dice are not thrown irrevocably, there is still time and, until the UK leaves the EU, the letter" Article 50 "can be withdrawn," he said. he writes in a recent pamphlet.
Other legal experts are not convinced, arguing the costs already incurred by other EU Member States following divorce talks and that the clause focused on protecting the interests of its remaining members meant that it could not be reversed just because of the UK.
The ECJ's decision is unclear, but Cherry said he was optimistic that this would happen before UK lawmakers decided on the deal that should take place in mid-December.
Edited by Guy Faulconbridge
