[ad_1]
BRUSSELS – Talks between Britain and the European Union ended Sunday without an agreement on Brexit, leaving three days for both parties to bridge the gap between their positions before a decisive summit.
An unforeseen and face-to-face meeting between EU negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit's British Secretary Dominic Raab and a hasty meeting of 27 EU ambassadors in Brussels had let predict that the long-awaited agreement was imminent.
Barnier disappointed these hopes Sunday night by writing on Twitter: "Despite intense efforts, some key issues remain unresolved" in the negotiations on divorce. The main stumbling block remains the need to "avoid a hard border" between Ireland and Northern Ireland in the UK after Brexit, he said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and her parliamentary allies are putting intense pressure on the party to give up more ground for negotiations, especially on the border issue.
The British government said in a statement released Sunday night that "unresolved issues remain," while insisting that the negotiators had "made real progress" in reaching an agreement on the divorce.
The lack of a breakthrough at the border increased the chances that the Brexit negotiations would not result in an agreement specifying relations between the EU and its former member, and vice versa. EU officials have warned that real progress is needed at the Wednesday summit.
The British government said it remained committed to making progress at the summit. An EU official said that no further negotiations were planned before the meeting of EU country leaders in Brussels. Both parties had previously agreed that a special meeting in November – to be convened only if sufficient progress had been made this week – would be the deadline for reaching an agreement since Britain must leave the EU March 29th.
The EU and the UK are seeking an elusive compromise on the difficult issue of the Irish border before the summit. "Irish support" is the main obstacle to an agreement that lays out the terms of Britain's departure from the EU and its future relations with the bloc.
After Brexit, the currently invisible border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be the only land border of the UK with an EU country. Britain and the European Union agree that there should be no customs control or other infrastructure at the border, but do not agree on how this can be accomplished.
Raab, the British secretary of Brexit, was not expected in Brussels on Sunday, but made a last-minute trip for a meeting in person with Barnier.
"Several important issues still to be resolved, including technical support from Northern Ireland, it was agreed that face-to-face talks were needed," Raab's office said.
The EU's "support" solution – keeping Northern Ireland in a customs union with the bloc – has been rejected by Britain as it would require controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. United.
The alternative – keeping the whole of the United Kingdom in a customs union until a permanent solution is found – scandalized the pro-Brexit members of May's divided government, who claimed that this approach would limit the capacity of the union. countries to conclude new trade agreements in the world.
The idea is also anathema to the Democratic Unionist Party, a Protestant party in Northern Ireland that supports May's minority government.
So even if May makes an agreement with Brussels, she will have a hard time getting it to his government and Parliament at home.
Raab's predecessor, David Davis, wrote in the Sunday Times that May's plans to maintain close economic ties with the EU even after Britain's departure are "totally unacceptable" and must be stopped by its members. ministers.
May is struggling to find consensus around his plans for Brexit in anticipation of the Cabinet meeting to be followed by his Wednesday summit. If Davis's call to a rebellion is effective, the Cabinet meeting may be agitated.
Davis and former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson resigned from the May Cabinet this summer to protest his Brexit project. Although the three men are members of the conservative ruling party, the two men became fierce opponents of May's plan, saying it would betray the Brexit vote and leave Britain tied to the EU with no influence over the country. its rules.
Johnson, who regularly uses his column in the Daily Telegraph to excuse May's Brexit plan for May, said border security at the EU was "a choice between the dissolution of this country or its subjugation." , between separation and submission ".
"This must be rejected, and now," he wrote in Monday's edition.
May's plan of Brexit was also rejected by the leaders of the main Labor Party, the main opposition party, further reducing the Prime Minister's hope of securing Parliament's support for any deal on the Brexit concluded with EU officials.
___
Katz and Lawless reported from London.
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
[ad_2]Source link
