What is the issue?
As the EU and Britain enter for the next round of Brexit negotiations, EU demands more clarity on certain issues before Britain decides on post-Brexit arrangements.
What are the recent developments?
- The opposition party is putting forth the idea of a "soft Brexit".
- Firstly, this means Britain remaining in the EU’s customs union and single market for a transition period after the March 2019 Brexit deadline.
- This would perhaps facilitate tariff-free trade, and the much-needed certainty to businesses and consumers.
- However, it also implies the acceptance of the principle of free movement of people within the EU bloc, which was earlier one of the prime reasons for the Brexit.
- Secondly, the initial call for Brexit had firmly asserted the need for Britain's independence from the European Court of Justice on national sovereignty concerns.
- However, recently, the ruling Conservative Party has hinted a possibility of the continued role of the Court well after Britain’s exit from the EU.
- Britain Prime Minister Theresa May is compromising on her earlier stance to leave both, as she lost her parliamentary majority in the recent elections.
What is the way forward?
- The withdrawal agreement as understood from Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union entails three distinct elements -
- status of British and EU migrants resident in their respective territories
- the financial settlement of London’s outstanding dues
- reconfiguration of the EU-UK border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
- The European Union insists that these key issues of withdrawal be dealt and settled before any post-Brexit discussions begin.
- A resolution of these outstanding issues only would ensure a meaningful negotiation on the Brexit as well as any future trade agreement between the two parties.
Source: The Hindu
