Brexit: EU says no to May on renegotiating deal

European Union (EU) leaders have said the Brexit withdrawal agreement is “not open for renegotiation”, despite appeals from Theresa May, BBC reported.

She wanted legal assurances on the Irish backstop to help her deal get through Parliament, after she delayed a Commons vote in anticipation of defeat.

The PM said the deal was “at risk” if MPs’ concerns could not be addressed.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said there could be clarifications but no renegotiation.

He urged the UK to set out more clearly what it wants, adding that the commission will publish information on 19 December on its preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

Mrs May returned to Brussels for a summit with EU leaders on Thursday, at the end of a week that has seen her first delay the vote on the withdrawal agreement in Parliament, then win a vote of confidence brought by MPs unhappy with it.

She vowed to listen to the concerns of the 37% of Tory MPs who voted against her and was hoping to “assuage” their concerns about the controversial “backstop” plan in the agreement.

Critics say the backstop – aimed at preventing a hard border in Northern Ireland – would keep the UK tied to EU rules indefinitely and curb its ability to strike trade deals.

Conservative MPs demanded changes to the backstop to make it clear that it could not last forever, and the UK could terminate the arrangement on its own.

At the summit, Mrs May was seeking legal assurances that the backstop, if used, would be temporary.

The BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg said one of the ideas being considered in Brussels was whether they could agree a “start date” for a future trade relationship between the UK and the EU after Brexit instead of an end date for the backstop.

If this meeting in Brussels was meant to provide Theresa May with the beginnings of an escape route from her Brexit conundrum, the signs are not good.

At one of her most vulnerable political moments Number 10 was hopeful at least of an indication of a potential solution to the most intense of a long list of Brexit problems – the controversial so-called backstop designed to guarantee against a hard Irish border.

But right now, that’s simply not on offer.

EU leaders made plain – their warnings that their divorce deal with Britain was not up for negotiation were real.

Requests for change to ease the Westminster politics were not fulfilled, with key phrases from a more accommodating draft gone by midnight.

But the rejection gives succour perhaps to those in government who want their critics to accept that the prime minister’s deal may be genuinely, as good as it gets.

In comments released by Downing Street on Thursday, Mrs May told EU leaders she firmly believed the deal could get through the Commons and told them: “Let’s work together intensively to get this deal over the line in the best interests of all our people.”

And she said it was in everyone’s interests for the deal to be “delivered in an orderly way and to get it done now” rather than “to run the risk of an accidental ‘no deal’ with all the disruption that would bring or to allow this to drag on any further”.

“There is a majority in my Parliament who want to leave with a deal so with the right assurances this deal can be passed. Indeed it is the only deal capable of getting through my Parliament,” she said.

“Over the last two years, I hope that I have shown you that you can trust me to do what is right, not always what is easy, however that difficult that might be for me politically.”

 

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