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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/21/theresa-may-demands-respect-from-eu-in-brexit-negotiations
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| Theresa May demands respect from EU in Brexit negotiations | Theresa May demands respect from EU in Brexit negotiations |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Theresa May has accused the European Union of not treating the UK with respect, in a hastily arranged Downing Street statement a day after she was humiliated at the Salzburg summit when EU leaders declared her Chequers plan would not work. | |
| A combative prime minister said she stood by Chequers and added that throughout the Brexit negotiations she had treated her counterparts with “nothing but respect” and added: “The UK expects the same.” | |
| May said the two sides remained “a long way apart” but insisted the UK was prepared to negotiate, and called on the EU to explain what it believed was wrong with her trade proposals. | |
| “It is not acceptable to simply reject the other side’s proposals without a detailed explanation and counter proposals,” May said. “So we now need to hear from the EU what the real issues are and what their alternative is so that we can discuss them.” | “It is not acceptable to simply reject the other side’s proposals without a detailed explanation and counter proposals,” May said. “So we now need to hear from the EU what the real issues are and what their alternative is so that we can discuss them.” |
| At the EU summit in Salzburg on Thursday May was ambushed by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the EU council president, Donald Tusk, who embarrassed the prime minister by declaring that Chequers would not work. | |
| Downing Street is calculating that May can win support by appearing to stand up to the EU, although her critics in the party believe this would be the moment to give up the Chequers plan, which is an attempt to ensure that there is no return to a hard border in Ireland. | |
| Chequers proposes the UK shares a common rulebook for goods and services after Brexit in an attempt to prevent a return of customs checks for goods crossing the Irish border. But EU leaders believe it will undermine the single market by giving British companies a competitive advantage and pose a threat to the “European project”. | |
| The prime minister repeatedly rejected an EU backstop proposal which would see Northern Ireland remain inside the customs union if the UK could not agree a free trade agreement with Brussels in the divorce talks. | |
| Ratcheting up the language on the issue, May said: “Creating any form of customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK would not respect that Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom, in line with the principle of consent, as set out clearly in the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. | |
| “It is something I will never agree to – indeed, in my judgement it is something no British prime minister would ever agree to. If the EU believe I will, they are making a fundamental mistake.” | |
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