EU lawmakers yesterday passed a resolution calling for phased negotiations in divorce proceedings with Britain, going against the wishes of London, which would like exit talks and discussions of a future trade arrangement to happen in parallel.
The lawmakers voted 516 to 133 for the resolution, with 50 abstentions, highlighting the tough task ahead for British Prime Minister Theresa May, as she enters two years of negotiations with 27 EU nations.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier called parallel talks on Britain’s exit from the EU and a future trade relationship “a very risky approach” that he is bent on avoiding.
Photo: Reuters
Barnier told EU legislators in Strasbourg, France, that “to succeed, we need on the contrary to devote the first phase of negotiations exclusively to reaching agreement on the principle of the exit.”
May last week sought hand-in-hand negotiations on exit and a future relationship, while the EU Council president and EU top legislators argued against it.
The Brexit talks are expected to start late next month once the negotiating guidelines of the 27-member nations have been sealed in a mandate for Barnier.
However, Britain insisted again that it wanted to move on to discuss the future as soon as possible.
“The best interests of both sides of this negotiation will be served by getting on to the technical discussion about the future relationship as quickly as possible in the two years that we have available,” British Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the EU Robin Walker said.
The two sides have a general agreement that they want to tackle the fate of the 3 million EU citizens in Britain and about 1 million Britons residing in the other EU nations first of all.
“I really welcome the fact that the parliament and the [EU] Council have set that out as a first priority from the EU perspective as well,” Walker said.
The parliament’s Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, said it was perhaps best that there was never much positive passion in the cross-Channel relationship.
“It never was a love affair,” he said, instead calling it “a marriage of convenience.”
In related news, May has not ruled out allowing the free movement of people between Britain and the EU during “an implementation phase” after Britain leaves the bloc, the BBC reported yesterday.
May has said she expects some kind of implementation phase, or transitional agreement, after two years of talks with the bloc.
She has offered few details on how an implementation phase would operate, but if Britain wants to keep the status quo before finalizing a deal, it will have to accept the EU’s rules — the so-called four freedoms allowing the free movement of people, capital, goods and services.
Asked whether her government would rule out the free movement of people in any transitional period after the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU were agreed, May declined to do so, the BBC said.
“Once we’ve agreed what the new relationship will be for the future, it will be necessary for there to be a period of time when businesses and governments are adjusting systems and so forth,” May told reporters on a visit to Saudi Arabia.
Concern over immigration from the EU was a major reason behind Britain’s vote to leave and May has said she will respect those fears by not seeking membership of Europe’s single market, which would mean allowing freedom of movement of people.
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