简体中文
Prime Minister Theresa May urged the EU on Monday not to allow a stand-off over a "backstop" for Ireland to derail Brexit talks, saying she believed a deal was still achievable as a top EU official said chances of a no-deal divorce had increased.
Addressing a parliament session before she headed to Brussels for a summit on Wednesday, May remained upbeat but repeated she would not agree to anything that could split the United Kingdom.
With less than six months before Britain leaves the bloc, talks stalled at the weekend over how to ensure there is no return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU-member Ireland.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May peers into a hot water urn as she helps make drinks during a visit to social group in Vauxhall, south London, where she launched the government's loneliness strategy on October 15, 2018.
The stalemate has increased the possibility of Britain leaving the bloc without an agreement, a “no deal” Brexit that could potentially disrupt trade, delay movement of goods, and starve the world's fifth largest economy of investment.
European Council President Donald Tusk said that scenario was “more likely than ever before” and one that the EU should be ready for, though all parties must do their best to reach a deal.
He said he had invited May to address her 27 EU peers on Brexit on Wednesday evening.
May said it was frustrating that “almost all the remaining points of disagreement are focused on how we manage a scenario which both sides hope should never come to pass and which, if it does, would only be temporary."
"We cannot let this disagreement derail the prospects of a good deal and leave us with a 'no-deal' outcome that no-one wants," she told parliament.
EU Council President Donald Tusk enjoys some ice cream in Salzburg summit on September 21, 2018. /Reuters Photo
The 2016 referendum on membership of the EU deeply divided Britain, and those rifts were on show in parliament, where May received more demands for reassurance than words of support from lawmakers, even those in her own Conservative Party.
May tried to explain the obstacles, which she described as largely technical, that had scuppered any hope of agreement in the talks in Brussels on Sunday.
She said the EU had stuck to a proposal of keeping Northern Ireland in its customs union if a UK-wide plan was not ready to be put in place when a transitional arrangement runs out at the end of 2020.
May insists any customs arrangement as part of the backstop must be temporary, ending at the latest in December 2021, but the EU has refused to set an end date.
(REUTERS)
