EU Wants U.K. Parliament to Vote on Brexit Deal Changes Before Final Summit

(Bloomberg) -- European Union officials want Prime Minister Theresa May to put the changes she secures on the Irish backstop to a vote in Parliament before EU leaders are asked to sign off on them at a summit, according to two people familiar with the situation.

• EU doesn’t want to call leaders for a summit to sign off on changes that are then rejected by the U.K. Parliament, according to the EU officials, who declined to be named
• Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay are expected to propose their wording for the legal text on Thursday, the people said
• Once there’s an agreement, it should be tested in Parliament, and only after that will leaders be asked to sign off on it at a summit. One of the people said that would probably be the meeting scheduled for March 21.
• NOTE: May aims to show Parliament she has made significant progress on the backstop by Feb. 27, a person familiar with the U.K. position said earlier on Wednesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net, Emma Ross-Thomas

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