Brussels, Belgium | AFP | British MPs will vote on a draft Brexit deal on Tuesday aimed at ensuring a smooth exit from the European Union to be followed by a transition period that could last until 2022. The agreement was voted down overwhelmingly by parliament in January but the …
Read More »EU, UK officials hold more Brexit talks
London, United Kingdom | AFP | British and EU officials were meeting Saturday to try again to break the deadlock over their divorce deal, less than three weeks before Brexit. The two sides are trying to find a way to make the withdrawal agreement acceptable to British MPs, who have already rejected it once and …
Read More »British PM presses EU for ‘one more push’ on Brexit deal
Grimsby, United Kingdom | AFP | Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday called on the European Union for “one more push” to strike a Brexit compromise deal and told MPs that rejecting the agreement could mean Britain never leaves. “It needs just one more push,” May told an audience of workers …
Read More »EU says ‘no solution’ for now to break Brexit deadlock
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Wednesday “no solution” has been found so far to break the deadlock over Brexit, a spokesman reported after the latest negotiations in Brussels. Briefing the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, Barnier said the talks “have been difficult”, spokesman Margaritis Schinas said following the …
Read More »Side-front in Britain’s Brexit drama — the US Congress
Washington, United States | AFP | With Britain deadlocked on negotiating its divorce from the European Union, an unexpected side-front is emerging — the US Congress. Conservatives who pushed the June 2016 referendum that ended in the shock decision to leave the 28-member bloc dangled the prospect of a free trade agreement with the United …
Read More »UK regional funding dubbed ‘desperate bribe’ for Brexit votes
London, United Kingdom | AFP | British Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled £1.6 billion ($2.12 billion, 1.87 billion euros) in regional development funds Monday in what opposition MPs dismissed as a “desperate bribe” to persuade them to back her Brexit deal. The money for new jobs and training is mostly directed at northern English areas …
Read More »Prince William flies to N.Ireland amid Brexit tensions
Belfast, United Kingdom | AFP | Prince William arrived in Northern Ireland on Wednesday as the British government seeks to reassure the once-troubled province at the centre of the Brexit drama that its hard-won stability will endure. The hastily-arranged two-day visit by the second-in-line to the throne and his wife Kate comes as MPs argue …
Read More »Brexit to cause ‘significant’ harm to Britain’s health service
Paris, France | AFP | Brexit will inflict “significant harm” on Britain’s National Health Service, experts warned on Tuesday, with a no-deal departure from the EU likely to provoke acute shortages of staff and medicines. With little over a month remaining until Britain is due to leave the European Union, there …
Read More »EU’s Tusk says Brexit deadline extension a ‘rational solution’
Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt | AFP | European Council chief Donald Tusk said Monday that an extension to the March 29 deadline for Britain to leave the EU would be a “rational solution” given political developments. Tusk said he had discussed the legal and procedural context of a potential extension during talks Sunday with British …
Read More »No Brexit ‘deal in the desert’ for May: EU source
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | British Prime Minister Theresa May will have a chance to speak to fellow EU leaders at their summit with the Arab League, but she should not expect a Brexit breakthrough, an EU source said Friday. Arab and European leaders will meet for two days from Sunday in the Egyptian resort …
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