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UK PM Theresa May ends tour without

EU Brexit concessions | DW |
11.12.2018
Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com)
3 minutes

British Prime Minister Theresa May met with four EU leaders,

including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, to seek
"reassurances" on a draft Brexit deal. They were open to
clarifications, but not to renegotiations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European Union

leaders told British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday that
there would be no changes to the draft Brexit deal.

The British prime minister went into a whistle-stop tour of the

Netherlands, Germany and Brussels seeking "reassurances" that
the deal's "backstop" for keeping an open border in Ireland was
temporary.

But Merkel, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, EU Council President

Donald Tusk and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
told May in separate meetings that while they were open to
semantic clarifications, they would not renegotiate any aspect of the
deal.

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Juncker said there was 'no room' for new talks

"The deal we have achieved is the best deal possible, it's the only
deal possible," Juncker told the European Parliament ahead of his
meeting with May.

"There is no room whatsoever for renegotiation but of course there

is room, if used intelligently, to give further clarification and further
interpretations."

May's challenge

Speaking in Brussels, May said there was "a shared determination"

to tackle British lawmakers' concerns over the Irish backstop and
that UK-EU discussions would continue ahead of a meeting of EU
leaders on Thursday.

The meetings came a day after May abruptly suspended a

parliamentary vote on the draft deal — set for Tuesday — in the
face of widespread parliamentary opposition.

Pro-Brexit lawmakers in her own Conservative Party had

threatened to vote against the agreement because they feared the
backstop would force the UK to accept EU rules after it had left the

2
bloc.

No end in sight

May is set to meet Ireland's prime minister, Leo Varadkar, on

Wednesday ahead of a meeting of EU leaders on Thursday and
Friday.

But even is she obtains the reassurances from the remaining

member states, it is unclear whether they will convince enough
lawmakers to back the deal at a vote set to be held before January
21.

Tusk wrote in a Tweet after his meeting with May that EU leaders
wanted to help May secure a parliamentary majority for the deal
ahead of its departure on March 29, 2019.

"The question is how," he said.

amp/jm (AFP, dpa, AP, Reuters)

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