Things are not good for the British PM May, who has people quiting her government over her plan to deal with a exit from the European Union, while a lot of her citizen’s have decided they don’t want to leave the EU, and the EU itself isn’t in a hurry to help any breakup….
Brussels is on edge, but it has no intention of going back to the Brexit drawing board.
Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told a meeting of EU27 ambassadors Friday morning that whatever political “difficulties” Theresa May is experiencing in London, the bloc has a “duty” to stand firm on its key Brexit red lines, according to EU diplomats present.
For her part, May is standing firm on the deal in the face of a gale of criticism and is intent on pushing the deal to a vote in the House of Commons. But if political opponents in her own party succeed in forcing her to seek a better deal, there is no sign that any of the EU27 red lines will change.
We cannot “compromise” or engage in “cherry-picking” or “bargaining,” Barnier told ambassadors, referring to requests to reopen the draft deal that was agreed by the British Cabinet on Wednesday. He added that he expects “difficult negotiations” ahead.
Barnier also expressed a desire to help the British government in its efforts to ratify the text in a vote of MPs. And he said that there could be room for movement on the EU side in specific areas, such as enhanced cooperation on phytosanitary regulations and so-called technical barriers to trade. It is a moment not for triumphalism, he said, but for “encouragement.”
“All eyes are on London. We see there are some turbulences” — EU diplomat
The chief negotiator’s presentation at the more than two-hour meeting reflects a dilemma for Brussels. While EU countries want to help May get the deal through parliament, there is a reluctance at such a late stage to radically unpick the agreement — despite threats to May’s leadership and a series of ministerial resignations over the deal.
Diplomats say that some tweaks might still be possible if they could make the difference between the deal succeeding or crashing, but the kind of radical overhaul proposed by Brexiteers such as former Brexit Secretary David Davis is simply not on the table. There is “no question” of that, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday…..
image..Reuters
The thorniest point seems to be, as it has long been, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Theresa May definitely needs the votes of the 12 Democratic Unionist Party MP’s who allowed her to form a government in the first place, and they are rock-solidly opposed to any border régime that treats Northern Ireland differently from Great Britain (i.e. the rest of the U.K.) or seems to set up some kind of barrier over the Irish Sea that differs from, say, the border of England with Wales or England with Scotland.
In the June 2016 referendum on Brexit, the three regions that voted to Remain were Greater London, Scotland and Northern Ireland. I’m fairly sure that within Northern Ireland, Remain was supported by both Irish nationalists and Ulster Unionists. The open border for both goods and people between Northern Ireland and the Republic has been one of the major supports for the twenty years of peace that have followed the Good Friday Agreement, where previously the Border had been one of the most violent and dangerous areas for political violence.
There ARE reports that a good amount of people are scared shit less of the countries losses that are already apparent ….
The ‘thrill’IS GONE…
On the UNITED Kingdom and the EU?
This is a tough one…
PM May actually was against the move
We’ll see how things go
But sometimes doing one thing results in problems then you had in the orignal thing