The United Kingdom still risks being trapped in an Irish border backstop after Brexit despite the reassurances added at the last minute before the parliament votes on the withdrawal deal, UK Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th March, 2019) The United Kingdom still risks being trapped in an Irish border backstop after Brexit despite the reassurances added at the last minute before the parliament votes on the withdrawal deal, UK Attorney General Geoffrey Cox said Tuesday.
On Monday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed three changes to the Brexit deal. A "joint legally binding instrument" that will be added to the agreement states that the European Union may be found in breach of its commitments if it tries to keep the United Kingdom in the backstop. Another document lays out commitments to developing new technology at the border, while the third one says that the United Kingdom might be able to "disapply" backstop if the European Union did not act in good faith.
"The legal risk remains unchanged that if through no such demonstrable failure of either party, but simply because of intractable differences, that situation does arise, the United Kingdom would have, at least while the fundamental circumstances remained the same, no internationally lawful means of exiting the Protocol's arrangements, save by agreement," Cox said in a letter to May published by the UK government.
Juncker stressed at a late-night press conference on Monday that there would be no third chance if UK lawmakers voted against the tweaked deal on Tuesday.
The United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union on March 29, but the withdrawal agreement has already been rejected by the UK House of Commons once, before reassurances were added.
