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LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing mounting pressure on Monday to rethink her exit plan from the EU after the Brexit talks are held away this week. against the so-called Irish support.
PHOTO FILE: British Prime Minister Theresa May attends a roundtable with business leaders whose companies are the first signatories of the Race at Work Charter at the Southbank Center in London, UK, on October 11 2018. REUTERS / Henry Nicholls
Less than six months before Britain leaves the bloc and before May travels to Brussels on Wednesday for a summit where the two sides still hope to make progress, talks on Brexit were suspended on Sunday, after the two sides have not reached an agreement on how to treat the United States. Kingdom's only land border with the EU.
May was due to make a statement to Parliament later Monday after the weekend talks on ways to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the United States. Ireland, a member of the European Union, when Britain began its biggest policy change 40 years ago.
May, who repeatedly repeated that she could not accept the collapse of the UK, strives to meet the demands not only of the EU, but also of her party conservative and its partners in parliament, the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland. (DUP).
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said any agreement would now take longer than expected by many people.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that she was "very optimistic" about the possibility of reaching an agreement on the exit of Britain but "for the moment, this actually seems a little harder".
But a spokeswoman for May expressed her hope, saying that there were "a number of ways to achieve what we want to achieve" on the media. He refused to give details and reiterated that Britain believed that any such arrangement would be limited in time.
"We need to be able to look at the British people in the eye and say that the safety net is a temporary solution," he said. "We will not remain permanently locked in a single customs territory, unable to conclude meaningful trade agreements."
Over the weekend, EU sources said London had offered exactly that and asked Brussels to accept assurances that Britain would actually remain in a customs union in order to make the unnecessary support. The EU said that she would still need an insurance policy.
BACKSTOP TO A BACKSTOP
Everything will depend on May's ability to sell any agreement to her Conservative Party and the DUP, which threatened to withdraw support from the government if it accepted different rules for the province.
Sammy Wilson, DUP spokesman for Brexit, said he now felt that an unbridged Brexit was almost inevitable and said the talks in Brussels were turning into a "battle for the union".
May's former foreign minister, Boris Johnson, a leading figure in Britain's Brexit campaign and one of bookmakers' favorites to replace May, was equally critical.
"Assuming to change the constitutional provisions of the United Kingdom, the EU is treating us with flagrant disregard," he wrote in the Telegraph newspaper.
It was this kind of opposition that prevented Brexit Minister May, Dominic Raab, from accepting an agreement in Brussels on Sunday.
British officials said London could not accept Brussels' request to form a "reinforcement", which confirmed the EU's proposal to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union block if a new business relationship was not in place in time.
Britain has long stated that it wants an agreement on future relations with the EU, which, according to London, includes a set of common rules for manufactured and agricultural products, which would eliminate the need for of a support plan for Ireland.
But British negotiators also said they would honor their commitment to a backstop. This year the government has suggested to Britain to apply the EU external tariffs for a limited period in case of delay in implementing an agreement on Brexit.
EU negotiators criticized this proposal and said on Sunday that it was clear that, as things stood, May did not think she could get an agreement through her cabinet, which meets Tuesday.
EU officials and diplomats said they "will stay calm and continue", in the hope that May can solve her problems in London.
Some British officials were optimistic about the progress made at this week's EU summit. Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt told Luxembourg reporters: "There are one or two very difficult outstanding issues, but I think we can do it."
"Whether we do it this week or not, who knows? But I know that everyone is making incredible efforts.
Other reports by Amanda Ferguson in Belfast, Gabriela Baczynska, Francesco Guarascio, Alastair Macdonald in Brussels and Michelle Martin in Berlin; Edited by Janet Lawrence and David Stamp
