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Austrian leader hopes Brexit can be reversed after Commons setback Theresa May tells EU: I’m still in control despite Commons loss
(about 7 hours later)
The Austrian chancellor, Christian Kern, has spoken of his hopes that Brexit can be reversed after Theresa May’s defeat over the UK parliament’s right to have a meaningful vote on the European Union withdrawal bill. Theresa May lobbied for swift agreement on the terms of a post-Brexit transition period as she sought to reassure concerned leaders over dinner at an EU summit that she was still in control despite her Commons defeat.
News of the prime minister’s setback provoked a mixed response among the leaders of 27 member states arriving for an EU summit on Thursday, with concerns that it could complicate Brexit negotiations. The prime minister’s setback on Wednesday evening provoked questions in Brussels over Downing Street’s ability to negotiate the second phase of talks, along with hope in some quarters that the UK may eventually reverse its decision to leave the bloc.
Arriving later at the summit, after attending a memorial to those who died in the Grenfell tower fire, May said her government was still on course to deliver Brexit. As leaders prepared to agree on Friday morning that sufficient progress had been made in the first phase of the negotiations to move the talks on, concerns were further raised over whether May had sufficient grip to offer an agreed UK position on the future.
“I am disappointed with the amendment but actually the EU withdrawal bill is making good progress through the House of Commons,” she said. The EU has set the British cabinet a three-month deadline to provide clarity on its approach to a future trade deal.
However, Kern told reporters he held out hope that Britain would change its mind about leaving the bloc. On Wednesday, MPs voted by 309-305 to limit ministers’ power to make sweeping changes to the law before parliament has approved a Brexit deal. The cabinet is yet to have a substantive discussion about any future trade arrangement with the bloc.
“I hope that it [Brexit] could be reversed because there will be a lot of big issues and challenges that will not be easy to solve,” he said. “There will be a lot of tensions in the domestic political area in Great Britain.” Over dinner, however, the British prime minister reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to delivering a smooth and orderly exit from the EU.
MPs voted 309 votes to 305 on Wednesday night to limit ministers’ power to make sweeping changes to the law before parliament has approved a Brexit deal. May told the leaders that the British government “makes no secret of wanting to move onto the next phase and to approaching it with ambition and creativity”.
May is expected to explain to EU leaders over dinner on Thursday night how the defeat will impact on her ability to negotiate. “I believe this is in the best interests of the UK and the European Union,” May said. “A particular priority should be agreement on the implementation period so that we can bring greater certainty to businesses in the UK and across the 27.”
Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister, said he respected Wednesday’s vote but added it “doesn’t help a lot” given the need for swift decisions from Downing Street in the second phase of the negotiations on trade and a potential transition period. While conceding that the future negotiations were likely to be difficult she also insisted the UK and the EU had demonstrated what could be achieved with commitment and perseverance on both sides. May received a round of applause as she ended her address.
The EU leaders are expected to rule at a meeting on Friday morning that sufficient progress on the first phase of Brexit talks has been made, to allow the talks to widen. Arriving at the summit, after attending a memorial to those who died in the Grenfell Tower fire, May had told reporters the government was still “on course to deliver Brexit”.
Bettel said: “We have to respect [the vote], but we have an agenda, so this makes it even shorter for Theresa May’s government to make proposals.” She said: “I am disappointed with the amendment but actually the EU withdrawal bill is making good progress through the House of Commons.”
The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, whose country is an advocate for a close relationship with the UK post-Brexit, was among those who praised May. But he called on her to swiftly set out a vision of the future to allow substantive talks on trade to start. Government sources suggested they were happy for the EU to offer what is expected to be a vague declaration on the future trading relationship on Friday, as they felt their hands had been tied in the first phase by strict guidelines set by the EU in April.
Rutte said: “I still think she has a formidable stature here and last week Friday showed all of us that we should not underestimate Theresa May, she’s a formidable politician.” The two sides appear to be sticking to very different arguments about the scale of the trade arrangement that is likely to be in place by March 2019.
Asked whether he believed May could still deliver on her promises, he said: “Yes I do think so because I believe in UK society and also in the political circles there’s widespread support for a reasonable negotiated exit of Britain from the EU.” EU negotiators have suggested it will merely be a political agreement that will be fleshed out with detailed negotiations during the transition phase. British ministers insist that the substantial agreement must be complete by the Brexit deadline.
In response to David Davis’s suggestion that last week’s agreement between the UK and EU had no legal standing, he added: “An eyebrow was raised here and there because of that comment but I think it makes it more necessary to have as soon as possible that deal of last Friday in legally binding text so that we cannot have a misunderstanding exactly what was agreed.” The UK has also insisted that preliminary talks on trade could start earlier in the new year.
Rutte said he expected May to soon sketch out her vision of the future. “I guess she’s holding her cards close to her heart at the moment, which I understand on the next phase and this is probably a wise negotiating tactic,” he said. “But of course having now hopefully passed the mark of phase one, I think we need from her to understand how she sees this future relationship with the EU. It’s now for the UK to make up its mind and together collectively to see where we can get to.” Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, said on Thursday that he did not expect talks about trade to start until the spring. “The indicative timetable is that we will spend the next three months or so working on the withdrawal agreement, putting into a legal, international agreement what was agreed last week, talking a bit about the two-year transition phase,” he said. “And once we have that done, we can then talk about the new trading relationship.”
Earlier in the day Danuta Hübner, a Polish MEP who chairs the European parliament’s constitutional affairs committee, said the Commons vote would change little if MPs were given a vote after October 2018, as formal negotiations will have been completed. Despite the prime minister’s comments, the Austrian chancellor, Christian Kern, said he still believed Britain could change its mind about Brexit.
EU negotiators have long said Brexit negotiations must be completed by October 2018 to allow time for the ratification of the treaty before the UK’s departure day on 29 March 2019. “I hope that it could be reversed because there will be a lot of big issues and challenges that will not be easy to solve,” he said. “There will be a lot of tensions in the domestic political area in Great Britain.”
Hübner said: “Once it is finalised and it is signed by both parties, then any change to it means reopening negotiations, meaning we will not make it within the two years [the article 50 deadline], meaning there is a hard Brexit.” Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister, said he respected parliament’s’s vote but added that it “doesn’t help a lot” given a need for swift decisions from Downing Street in the second phase of the negotiations on trade and a potential transition period.
Stressing it was purely a British decision to decide how MPs will have a say on the withdrawal agreement, she said even the smallest change to the treaty would mean resuming negotiations. “Once anybody changes a comma or a dot or one word, then there is no opinion, this has to go back to the negotiations.” “We have to respect [the vote], but we have an agenda, so this makes it even shorter for Theresa May’s government to make proposals,” he said.
The six-month window from October 2018 to March 2019 is intended to allow the treaty to be translated into the EU’s 24 official languages and for it to be scrutinised by committees in the European parliament, before the final plenary vote. The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, whose country is an advocate for a close relationship with the UK after Brexit, was among those who praised May. But he called on her to swiftly set out a vision of the future to allow substantive talks on trade to start.
The European parliament will be asked to approve the article 50 treaty before March 2019, but will be unable to make changes. Hübner, a member of the parliament’s Brexit steering group, said MEPs were seeking to exert influence in other ways. “That is why we use a period of negotiation to influence the negotiations, to know what is in the mandate, to contribute to the result, but we cannot amend [the treaty] because then it will be a never ending story.” Rutte said: “I still think she has a formidable stature here and last Friday showed all of us that we should not underestimate Theresa May. She’s a formidable politician.”
Asked whether he believed May could still deliver on her promises, he said: “Yes, I do think so, because I believe in UK society and also in the political circles there’s widespread support for a reasonable negotiated exit of Britain from the EU.”
In response to David Davis’s suggestion that last week’s agreement between the UK and EU had no legal standing, Rutte added: “An eyebrow was raised here and there because of that comment but I think it makes it more necessary to have as soon as possible that deal of last Friday in legally binding text so that we cannot have a misunderstanding exactly what was agreed.”
The Dutch leader said he expected May to soon sketch out her vision of the future. “I guess she’s holding her cards close to her heart at the moment, which I understand on the next phase and this is probably a wise negotiating tactic,” he said. “But of course having now hopefully passed the mark of phase one, I think we need from her to understand how she sees this future relationship with the EU. It’s now for the UK to make up its mind and together collectively to see where we can get to.”
The Conservative leader in the European parliament, Ashley Fox, said that he was “disappointed” by those who had voted against the government on Wednesday night, adding: “It is not going to help the UK negotiate a good deal.”