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The EU is ready to extend a transitional period after the departure of the United Kingdom, confirmed the Irish Foreign Minister, while recalling that Britain should not deny previous agreements aimed at preventing a hard border in North Ireland
This confirmation took place while Environment Secretary Michael Gove had warned that an agreement on Brexit might not be in effect before the December EU leaders summit.
Theresa May will address European leaders in Brussels for the European Council summit ahead of Wednesday night's dinner, as negotiators continue to grapple with drafting the withdrawal agreement.
One source 10 said that the UK's approach to the transition period, which is due to end in December 2020, has not been changed. "We are not asking for an extension of the implementation period," the source said.
The UK insists that the proposal for Irish support be replaced in the withdrawal agreement by a temporary customs union at the UK level, insisting that it can not allow in Northern Ireland to be "cut up".
A backstop is needed to ensure that there is no hard border in Ireland if a comprehensive free trade agreement can not be signed until the end of 2020. Theresa May proposed to the EU that the whole of the UK remains in the customs union after Brexit, but Brussels said that it needed more time to evaluate the proposal.
As a result, the EU insists on having its own support – the backing of a backing – which would mean that Northern Ireland would remain in the single market and in the future. In the absence of a free trade agreement, this would raise strong objections from conservative Conservatives, the Brexiters, the DUP, which supports its government.
This prompted May to propose a nationwide alternative in which the whole of the UK would remain in parts of the customs union after Brexit.
"The EU still needs a" backstop ", which is an insurance policy for the insurance policy. And they want it to be the only solution proposed by Northern Ireland, "May told the MPs.
Addressing the stakes, the prime minister said that the EU's insistence posed a threat to the UK's constitution: "We have made it clear that we can not accept anything that threatens the integrity of our United Kingdom, "she added.
The EU27 stated that there should be one all-weather protection to avoid any hard borders in Northern Ireland and to indicate the wording of the December Joint Arrangement that the security system should operate "until that "the other frontier has been put in place.
Before the summit, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney had said that the EU was willing to offer "new thinking and new imagination" to try to narrow the gap, but said the United Kingdom could not reverse its existing commitments.
"The European Union is willing to allow more time during the transition period to agree on an alternative to the backstop," he told BBC Radio 4's Today. [the EU chief negotiator] Michel Barnier suggests the following: let's make sure that the safety net will never be used by creating the space and time needed for the UK and the EU to negotiate customs arrangements at EU level. British. "
However, he added, the backstop would not work as an insurance option if it was limited in time. "We must insist on the commitments already made in this negotiation process," he said.
"It's like taking out fire insurance at home … it's there to reassure people, there's a fallback position if all else fails."
Coveney said that EU countries, including Ireland, did not want to see the UK burst or impose a customs border along the Irish Sea, but that opponents British also had to respect what had already been agreed.
"No one is asking Northern Ireland to continue to be part of the EU," he said. "But we recognize that Northern Ireland is different from other parts of the UK. A peace agreement that has been in place for 20 years has stabilized and normalized the island of Ireland and avoided violence, that is what we are trying to protect.
"We have been pushed into this position and we are trying to protect a fundamental interest. The majority of citizens in Northern Ireland are in favor of this position, including a discrete and de-dramatized security solution to soothe the nerves of the border. "
Barnier, the chief negotiator for the EU, has hinted that the British government did not meet the necessary conditions to convene a special summit on Brexit in November, although Coveney hinted on Wednesday that this was still possible.
Mr Gove, one of the Brexiters' most prominent representatives in the cabinet, told a committee of deputies Wednesday that it was possible that no agreement would be reached until December.
"We may have seen how the European negotiations work, we found that progress is made at the October Council, at the November Council, and it is still late as before the agreement is reached. Obviously, everyone wants the agreement to be concluded sooner, "he said.
Ministers had hoped to submit a final agreement to Parliament for a vote before the Christmas holidays, and failure to reach an agreement by December would delay the government considerably.
Coveney said the EU would begin publishing its emergency plans for a non-agreement scenario next week, which he described as "not a pretty picture".
Downing Street announced that May will meet with Commissioner Leo Varadkar, as well as EU Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Wednesday afternoon for bilateral talks, before addressing the EU27 leaders before dinner. She will not attend the rest of the meal and will leave for the residence of the UK ambassador as talks around the Brexit continue between European leaders at a dinner in his absence.
May has not ruled out the possibility that the UK will pour into the coffers of the EU in the event that no trade agreement could be concluded after the end of the transition period in 2020.
Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn asked the Prime Minister in the House of Commons "to confirm the legal opinion of the Treasury given to the Cabinet that, in the event of a lack of agreement, the government should still pay a divorce bill of 30 billion pounds.
May responded by addressing a different point, stating that the UK had agreed in principle to pay the £ 39 billion exit bill in December, provided that negotiations with the EU are completed. She added: "It is a country that respects its legal obligations and we will do it exactly, but I also remind members that nothing has been agreed until all is agreed."
May, Wednesday morning, received a boost in the form of a letter from US President Donald Trump, informing Congress that the United States wanted to start formal trade negotiations with the United Kingdom "as soon as it is ready After Brexit.
The letter from Trump's sales representative, Robert Lighthizer, was sent to Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and House and Senate Democrat House Leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, as well as similar letters on the beginning of the exchanges. talks with Japan and the EU.
"We are determined to conclude these negotiations with tangible and concrete results for US workers, farmers, ranchers and companies," said Lighthizer, suggesting that the United States is waiting for what it says. A large agreement covers controversial agricultural products.
Britain's International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said the British public would not accept the dilution of animal welfare standards, although Trump's trade secretary Wilbur Ross said that 39, a trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom was based on the repeal of European rules on food standards, including on chlorinated chicken.
