Dec. 17 (UPI) — Prime Minister Theresa May has claimed her plans to broker a Brexit deal “will not be derailed,” despite a number of challenges.
The leader of the Britain penned a pair of op-eds published Sunday promising to see a Brexit agreement with the European Union to completion.
Last week, the EU agreed to proceed to the second round of separation talks. The EU and Britain will now discuss the details of trade relationships having come to terms over separation issues related to financial liabilities and citizens’ rights.
The second round of talks is expected to prove much thornier territory, and discussions could be complicated by the role of the British Parliament. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Commons backed an amendment giving Parliament a final vote on any final Brexit deal.
In her op-eds, May claimed to be undeterred by critics — many of them from her own party.
“Amid all the noise this Government is getting on with the job,” May said. “This is the exciting part of the negotiations and there is no limit on our ambition and creativity.”
“We want a new economic partnership which will support generations of jobs for our people,” she said. “And we want a new security relationship that can help to keep families safe here in Britain and across the continent.”
May faces the difficult task of managing the expectations of hardline Brexit supporters and those of her conservative colleagues who want to maintain a close political and economic relationship with the European Union.
The European Union’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has made it clear that finding a happy middle ground won’t be easy.
“They have to realize there won’t be any cherry picking,” Barnier said in a recent interview. “We won’t mix up the various scenarios to create a specific one and accommodate their wishes, mixing, for instance, the advantages of the Norwegian model, member of the single market, with the simple requirements of the Canadian one. No way. They have to face the consequences of their own decision.”
