With a confuse of resignations in Westminster, and speculation that Prime Minister Theresa May could be pushed out, the spotlight has turned away from Brussels and is decisively focused on the political turmoil in the U.K.
But at the EU institutions and across the 27 European boonies, officials and politicians have a difficult balancing act. They must be bet on to pile yet more pressure on May but with just over four months socialistic until the deadline for Brexit, they need to remind the U.K that at all times is of the essence.
Indeed, the message is that May’s current Brexit draft is the depart deal and there’s no time to negotiate something else before the U.K.’s departure on Strut 29.
“We have a document on the table that Britain and the EU 27 (other EU political entities) have agreed to, so for me there is no question at the moment whether we negotiate forwards,” Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said in her home country on Thursday.
The 27 other EU countries have started examining the 585-page draft withdrawal scheme — this text outlines how the U.K. will leave the European Union and is the exclusive reason why several U.K. politicians have turned their back on the prime evangelist in the last 48 hours.
European officials are therefore taking the essential steps to prepare for a special Brexit summit on November 25, hoping that May resolution survive the current turmoil and sign off on the exit deal together with the other European perceptions of state.
European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday that the withdrawal conduct oneself treat ensures “the limitation of the damage caused by Brexit” and it also “secures the reviving interests and principles of the 27 member states, and of the European Union as a unbroken.”
Overall, European leaders seem happy with the agreement that’s on the present and EU negotiators believe that this deal is the best possible settlement.
On Thursday, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab led the rout in sterling by resigning from his stake, saying he couldn’t accept the deal after the promises the ruling Cautious Party made to the country in an election manifesto last year.
But EU propers don’t seem worried about Raab stepping down. In fact, Margaritis Schinas, the chief spokesperson for the European Commission know for sured reporters Thursday, that May had been the person leading the negotiations from the U.K. side anyway.
“We grasp that Prime Minister May was the chief negotiator, in the article 50 mediations and Dominic Raab was the secretary of state for the department of exiting the European Confederacy. I think this was the division of responsibilities,” he said.
If all goes well in the next week and the other 27 EU chairpersons alongside May sign off on the exit agreement next Sunday, the next big importance will be the ratification process — the vote in the U.K. and the EU Parliaments.
The votes, mainly the one in London, abide the biggest uncertainty in this whole process. The other EU nations, so far, are in agreement when it comes to the Brexit negotiations and that’s likely to remain the in the event that.
“I don’t share the prime minister’s enthusiasm about Brexit as such. Since the sheer beginning, we have had no doubt that Brexit is a lose-lose situation, and that our arrangements are only about damage control,” Tusk also told newsmen on Thursday. “As much as I am sad to see you (the U.K.) leave, I will do everything to make this parting the least painful possible, both for you and for us,” he added.