Beleaguered May meeting EU leaders to save Brexit deal, political skin
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Tuesday 11 Dec 2018
(Sharecast News) - Prime Minister Theresa May started a tour of European capitals on Tuesday in an attempt to save her Brexit deal and political skin after running away from a crunch parliamentary vote on the agreement.
Even as she prepared for meetings with the Netherland's Mark Rutte and Germany's Angela Merkel, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was already warning there was "no room whatsoever for further renegotiation", and described Brexit as the "surprise guest" at the upcoming EU summit.
"But of course, if used intelligently, there is enough room to give further clarification and further interpretation without opening the withdrawal agreement," he told the European Parliament to applause on Tuesday.
"This will not happen. Everyone has to know that the withdrawal agreement will not be re-opened."
"I'm surprised because we had reached an agreement on the 25th November together with the government of the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding that, it would appear that there are problems right at the end of the road."
May was forced into a humiliating climbdown on Monday when the reality of a crushing and potentially fatal defeat dawned on her and she pulled the vote in response to anger over the so-called Northern Ireland "backstop" clause. Even then she had sent ministers out in the morning to insist the vote would go ahead.
The backstop is the insurance policy to avoid a hard border with Northern Ireland if a comprehensive free trade deal cannot be signed before the end of 2020.
Its critics argue that it forces different regulations on Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and that under the terms of the withdrawal agreement, the UK can not exit the backstop without EU agreement.
Juncker said he believed the EU and UK had "a common determination to do everything to not be in a situation one day to use that backstop, but we have to prepare it, it is necessary".
"It is necessary for the entire coherence of what we have agreed with Britain, and it is necessary for Ireland. Ireland will never be left alone," he said.
His comments on the zero odds of a renegotiation were echoed on Monday by Irish Taoseach Leo Varadkar and European Council president Donald Tusk who agreed that the withdrawal deal was "the best option and could not be renegotiated", adding that preparations for a no deal outcome would now "intensify".
"We have already offered a lot of concessions along the way," Varadkar said. "We ended up with the backstop with this withdrawal agreement because of all the red lines the UK laid down along the way. This is a withdrawal agreement which has the support of 28 member states. It's not possible to open up any one aspect of this without opening up all aspects of the agreement."
"I have no difficulty with statements that clarify what's in the withdrawal agreement...but no statement of clarification can contradict what's in it."
Tusk was adamant the EU would "not renegotiate the deal, including the backstop, but we are ready to discuss how to facilitate UK ratification".
"As time is running out, we will also discuss our preparedness for a no-deal scenario."
In London, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable and the Westminster leaders of the SNP, Plaid Cymr and the Greens had signed a letter to opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn asking him to support a motion of no-confidence in May's government. Ironically it is Corbyn's lifelong Euroscepticism that is contributing to May's survival.
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