U.K. Shouldn't Expect Any More Meetings on Brexit Deal, EU Says
U.K. Shouldn't Expect Any More Meetings on Brexit Deal, EU Says
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union is not planning any more meetings with the U.K. on Brexit despite Prime Minister Theresa May warning EU leaders that her deal is almost dead.
“No further meetings with the U.K. are foreseen,” European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told reporters on Monday in Brussels. “On the EU side, we have started the process of ratification.”
EU leaders rebuffed May’s requests for more help in selling the deal to the U.K. Parliament at a summit last week. During a meeting with the leaders of France, Germany and the Netherlands on Friday she told them that the Brexit agreement is dead unless they offer further concessions, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“The deal that’s on the table is the best, the only deal possible,” Schinas said. “We will not reopen it; it will not be renegotiated.”
Britain leaves the bloc on March 29 and May is battling to save the agreement she’s negotiated with the EU from being killed off by opponents in Parliament. If May can’t find a plan that Parliament will accept, the U.K. will be on course to crash out of the bloc without a deal to cushion the blow.
Several EU diplomats said that a summit in January was still probable. Others said there were no firm plans and that it was unlikely.
May will attack supporters of a second Brexit referendum later on Monday, saying it would be a catastrophic breach of trust, according to extracts of her planned statement to Parliament released by her office.
On the possibility of a second referendum, “this is a debate that is internal to the United Kingdom and we have absolutely no comment on it,” Schinas said.
--With assistance from Thomas Penny and Tim Ross.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Jones Hayden, Richard Bravo
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