 |
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May hopes her Brexit plan could form the basis
of a political agreement on trade (AFP Photo/Christof STACHE)
|
Salzburg
(Austria) (AFP) - EU leaders refused to give ground to Britain's Theresa May on
Thursday, warning that her Brexit plan is unacceptable, even as she offered to
come up with new proposals for the Irish border.
After this
week offering to extend the deadline for a deal to a special summit in
mid-November, European Union leaders warned after talks in Salzburg that it
would not happen without more progress.
EU Council
President Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron tore into May's plan
for economic ties with the EU after Brexit, saying it simply "will not
work" and was "not acceptable".
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel also said there was "a lot of work to do"
before the bloc could agree a political declaration on trade, which Britain
wants as part of the final Brexit divorce.
They were
speaking after meeting without May at a summit in the Alpine city to discuss
their approach to the final stretch of negotiations ahead of Britain's
withdrawal from the EU in March.
"We
are today at the hour of truth," Macron said, saying the bloc's remaining
27 leaders expected "new British proposals in October."
London and
Brussels had originally said they wanted an agreement by October's EU summit,
but after months of stalled progress, Tusk suggested holding another one in
November to clinch the agreement.
But he
warned on Thursday that this would only work if progress can be made in the
next four weeks.
"If we
feel that we are able to finalise and formalise our deal in November, I will
call this extraordinary meeting, but not as an emergency but as a punchline of
effective negotiations before October and during our October EU council
meeting," he said.
New Irish
proposals
After
receiving what she described as a "frank" briefing on the Brexit
talks from Tusk, May gave a defiant press conference in which she insisted her
plan was "the only proposal on the table".
Her plan
for Britain to follow EU rules on trade in goods after Brexit, despite leaving
the bloc's single market and customs union, has already sparked a backlash
among eurosceptics at home.
She
insisted it is the only way to provide the "frictionless" movement of
goods on the frontier between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish
republic, which both sides have pledged to keep open.
 |
| Both sides had been aiming for an October EU summit as the deadline to reach an agreement (AFP Photo/Gillian HANDYSIDE) |
However,
May signalled that Britain may be willing to compromise on another sticking
point in the talks, on a fall-back plan to avoid frontier checks until it can
be resolved through a wider trade deal.
Tusk
repeated that the EU needs "tough, clear and precise guarantees" on
Ireland.
May said
she would "shortly" bring forward new proposals on the so-called backstop
on how to carry out regulatory checks on goods going in and out of Northern
Ireland.
The EU has
proposed that Northern Ireland continue to follow many EU trade rules and
regulations, which London has strongly rejected.
May says
she cannot accept having customs checks within the United Kingdom. However, she
refused to deny the new plans would involve regulatory checks in the same way.
New
Brexit vote
Merkel and
other leaders praised the progress that had been made in the negotiations, and
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: "I'm still optimistic we can come to
a joint position later this year."
Asked if
the EU's criticism of her plans increased the prospect that the two sides would
fail to reach a deal, May said: "We are continuing to work for a good
deal.
"I
think you will have heard both President Tusk and a number of the EU leaders
saying that they are looking and hoping and working to that good deal, but
there's a lot of work to be done."
May is
under intense pressure at home from eurosceptic members of her Conservative
party not to give away too much in the Brexit talks.
There are
fears that whatever deal she secures with the EU, she will not be able to get
it through the House of Commons, where she has only a slim majority.
Calls are
now growing for a re-run of the 2016 Brexit vote -- calls endorsed in Salzburg
by both the Maltese and Czech leaders.
However,
May warned it would not happen under her leadership, saying: "The UK will
leave on March 29 next year."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.