EU boosts 'no-deal' planning as UK refuses to blink in Brexit stalemate
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[September 11, 2020]
By Guy Faulconbridge and Jan Strupczewski
LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European
Union stepped up planning for a 'no-deal' Brexit on Friday after Prime
Minister Boris Johnson's government refused to revoke an ultimatum on
breaking the divorce treaty that Brussels says will sink four years of
talks.
Britain said explicitly this week that it plans to break international
law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that it signed
in January, when it formally left the bloc.
Britain says the move is aimed at clarifying ambiguities, but it caused
a new crisis in talks less than four months before the United Kingdom is
due to complete its departure from the EU's orbit when a transition
period ends in December.
The EU has demanded that Britain scrap the plan to breach the divorce
treaty by the end of this month. Britain has refused, saying its
parliament is sovereign above international law.
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"As the United Kingdom looks to what kind of future trade relationship
it wants with the European Union, a prerequisite for that is honoring
agreements that are already in place," said Pascal Donohoe, chairman of
euro zone finance ministers.
"It is imperative that the government of the United Kingdom respond back
to the call from the (European)Commission."
As the atmosphere soured between London and Brussels, Japan and Britain
said they had reached agreement in principle on a bilateral trade deal
that meant 99% of the Britain's exports to Japan would be tariff-free.
NO DEAL
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday, after talks in
London, that the bloc was increasing its planning for a no-deal Brexit
at the end of this year after trade talks made little progress.
"The UK has not engaged in a reciprocal way on fundamental EU principles
and interests," Barnier said. "Nobody should underestimate the
practical, economic and social consequences of a 'no deal' scenario."
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Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson is seen outside Downing
Street in London, Britain September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Toby Melville
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Investment banks have increased their estimates of the chances of a
messy end to Britain's divorce from the trading and political bloc
it first joined in 1973, and sterling has fallen against the dollar
and the euro.
European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic urged Britain to
scrap by the end of September the main elements of new legislation
put forward this week that would override parts of the Withdrawal
Agreement, but Britain said parliament would debate the bill on
Monday.
The bill will face opposition in both houses of parliament as many
senior British politicians have expressed shock that London is
explicitly planning to breach international law.
"The government will have to think again," said Norman Lamont, a
Brexit supporting member of the House of Lords, the upper chamber,
who was finance minister when the pound crashed out of the Exchange
Rate Mechanism in 1992.
"I don't think this will get through the Lords, in its present
form," Lamont said. "It is impossible to defend. They'll have to
think again."
Barnier's team will brief the 27 members of the EU on the progress
of trade talks on Friday.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Additional reporting by John
Chalmers, Elizabeth Piper and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Michael
Perry and Timothy Heritage)
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