Jon Stone- The Independent
EU leaders will wait until the new year before unveiling their plan to save Theresa May’s Brexit deal amid fears that the political turmoil in the UK would jeopardise any announcement long before the deal is voted on.
The bloc plans to hold back its best cards until January, sending the prime minister back to Westminster on Friday with warm words and a written commitment to help her in her renewed attempt to get the plan through parliament.
The prime minister on Thursday night insisted to her counterparts that she would have the numbers in the Commons to pass the deal if they would only give her something to help it “over the line”.
But arriving at the meeting, she played down the possibility of an “immediate breakthrough”, while senior UK government officials admitted that she had not brought any documented proposals for the other leaders to consider.
Speaking in the margins of the meeting, an EU official said there would be a “little bit of candy this time, and then once we see how that goes a little more candy in January”.
But it is far from clear that even an eventual final offer from the EU will be enough to win over Tory MPs, after 117 of them voted no confidence in her leadership.
The prime minister appears to have already jettisoned Brexiteer calls for a built-in time limit or expiration to the controversial backstop – despite having reportedly pledged to her MPs ahead of the confidence vote that she would only sign up to it if it was made temporary on a legally-binding basis.
It is understood that the prime minister did not mention time limits or an expiration date in a bilateral meeting with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar when the policy was discussed.
The EU leaders issued a bare-bones written statement after the meeting warning that deal “is not open for renegotiation”. But on the backstop they assure the UK it is the EU’s “firm determination to work speedily” to replace it with trade agreement.
The statement says the policy will “apply temporarily, unless and until it is superseded by a subsequent agreement” and that the EU will “use its best endeavours” to get it replaced quickly “so that the backstop would only be in place for as long as strictly necessary”.
Ms May told a closed-door meeting of leaders on Thursday night: “There is a majority in my parliament who want to leave with a deal, so with the right assurances this deal can be passed.
“Indeed it is the only deal capable of getting through my parliament.”
She called on leaders to give her something that would “change the dynamic” in Westminster, adding: “We have to change the perception that the backstop could be a trap from which the UK could not escape. Until we do, the deal – our deal – is at risk.”
But the EU has already clearly ruled out changes to the withdrawal agreement that contains the backstop, which keeps the UK tied to the EU customs area – with concessions likely to take the form of political declarations that countries will do their best to find a replacement for it, or non-legally binding protocols tacked onto the treaty.
Arriving at the summit, Mr Varadkar warned that “if the backstop has an expiry date, if there is a unilateral exit clause, then it is not a backstop”.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said at a midnight press conference after the discussion: “I do find it uncomfortable that there’s an impression perhaps in the UK that it is for the EU to propose solutions. It is for the UK leaving the EU and I would have thought that it was rather more for the British government.”
He warned that there seemed to be “a very wide gap” in views in Westminster with the UK unable to agree a position amongst itself.
Earlier in the day German chancellor Angela Merkel had said: “I do not see that this Withdrawal Agreement can be changed.
“We can discuss whether there should be additional assurances, but here the 27 member states will act very much in common and make their interests very clear.”
Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who is currently chairing the European Council, struck a more conciliatory tone, telling reporters: “We are ready to accommodate Theresa May. It’s not about pushing through maximum positions but to find a provision that is the best possible for both sides.”
Juha Sipila, the Finnish prime minister, told reporters that it would be “a little bit difficult” to give the PM legally binding assurances but that leaders wanted to try and help anyway.
