Brexit. Why do Brits want Out of the EU?

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An 11th-hour deal on Saturday to answer Spanish demands for a big say on Gibraltar after Britain leaves the EU has salvaged an EU summit which will now go ahead as planned on Sunday to deliver a Brexit accord.

With British Prime Minister Theresa May due to meet EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker and summit chair Donald Tusk at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT) and 7:15 p.m. respectively, Tusk secured a deal with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who had been threatening to scupper the consensus by staying away on Sunday.

BELFAST (Reuters) - Former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Saturday called for the appointment of a government minister to take charge of preparations for a “no-deal” British exit from the European Union.

“It is very important that we show we are negotiating with confidence and conviction and have a new secretary of state with powers across Whitehall to make things happen and get this country ready if we have to go out on WTO terms,” Johnson told the BBC.

He said he did not believe Britain would leave without a deal but he said doing so would not “be nearly as bad as some people suggest.”

However, Brexit has also had an impact on the continent’s Eurosceptics, he added. “It’s striking. Before and right after the referendum, the talk was Frexit, Nexit, Czexit. It all stopped very quickly. In France, Marine Le Pen wanted to leave the EU, then the euro, now she wants to leave neither. No one wants to.”

First, Lequesne said, Britain’s experience “has shown how complicated leaving is. Second, Brexit has boosted popular support for the EU.” October’s Eurobarometer survey shows that 68% of respondents feel their country benefits from EU membership, the highest level since 1983, while 66% – a majority in every state – said they would vote to remain in any exit referendum.

Surprising this business hasn’t been finalized.

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo fired back at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday night, dismissing his claims that Spain had secured “historic” gains in its sovereignty aspirations over Gibraltar.

In a stern message, he said Gibraltar would never renounce its British sovereignty and urged Mr Sanchez to “abandon the politics” on Gibraltar of Spanish dictator General Franco.

Mr Picardo was reacting to Mr Sanchez’ statement after news that a last-minute agreement had been reached to defuse the Brexit row over Gibraltar ahead of a crucial EU summit on Sunday to rubber-stamp the draft Withdrawal Agreement.

Spain claims it has a secured decisive voice over whether any future deal between the EU and the UK will be applied to Gibraltar.

“We have received sufficient guarantees to be able to reach a solution to a conflict that has lasted more than 300 years between the United Kingdom and Spain,” Mr Sanchez told reporters in Madrid, adding that Spain would again table its joint sovereignty proposal in the second phase of Brexit negotiations.
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Amid a growing outcry over the government’s concession, the prime minister insisted that nothing had changed over the UK’s territorial claim to Gibraltar. She also dismissed claims from Spain’s foreign minister that the agreement on the Rock had been a victory for Madrid, delivering a treaty that was “the most important one since the Utrecht Treaty of 1713”, that handed the territory to the British.

Theresa May said: “The UK’s position on the sovereignty of Gibraltar has never changed and will not change.

“I’m proud that Gibraltar is British and I will always stand by Gibraltar.”

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In a statement, the EU’s leaders stated their intention to build “as close as possible a partnership” with the UK after Brexit, while warning that they would be “permanently seized” in future negotiations by the principle that countries outside the bloc cannot enjoy the same rights as those within.
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Further statements issued on Sunday morning by the 27 EU leaders laid out their intention to maintain the rights of European fleets to fish in British waters.

There was a thinly veiled threat to block any transition extension unless a new arrangement with Brussels was swiftly agreed by the government.

Arriving at the summit, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, nevertheless advised MPs to vote for the deal on the table, suggesting that a “no” vote could damage negotiations on the future relationship.

“Now it is time for everybody to take their responsibilities, everybody,” he said. The deal was “a necessary step to build the trust between the UK and the EU” to build “an unprecedented and ambitious future partnership”.

The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said: “I would vote in favour of this deal because this is the best deal possible for Britain.

“I’m sad because watching the UK … leaving the EU is not a moment for jubilation but a moment of deep sadness and we make everything possible in order to have this divorce being as smooth as possible. but there are no smooth divorces.

“This is the deal, it’s the best deal possible and the EU will not change its fundamental position when it comes to this issue so I do think the British parliament – because this is a wise parliament – will ratify this deal.”

The French president, Emmanuel Macron described it as “a day of mourning”, while the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, warned MPs no better deal was on offer from the EU, urging them to back the agreements the May was bringing back to parliament.

“If I would live in the UK I would say yes to this, I would say that this is very much acceptable to the United Kingdom,” Rutte said, because the deal “limited the impacts of Brexit while balancing the vote to leave”. In a bid to help the prime minister, he said May had “fought very hard” and now there was “an acceptable deal on the table”.

“You know I hate [Brexit] but it is a given,” he told reporters. “No one is a victor here today, nobody is winning, we are all losing.”
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If this is successful, Britain's withdrawal from the EU on 29 March 2019 should proceed without chaos for the time being.

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe’s top court will hold an urgent hearing on Tuesday over whether Britain can unilaterally reverse its decision to leave the EU, in a case supporters of membership hope could pave the way to a second referendum and ultimately stop Brexit.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is being asked to interpret whether Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty - the mechanism by which Britain notified the European Union of its intention to leave - can be revoked.

Britain is due to exit the world’s biggest trading bloc on March 29 next year but it remains unclear whether British Prime Minister Theresa May’s draft withdrawal deal agreed with the EU on Sunday will be passed by parliament.

She has warned Britain could leave without a deal or that there could be no Brexit at all. That latter statement has given added significance to the outcome of the case before the ECJ - whose supremacy over UK legal matters May has cited as one reason to leave the EU.

If it concludes Britain can unilaterally reverse Brexit, it could give British lawmakers (MPs) a third viable option as an alternative to May’s deal or what ministers describe as a chaotic no deal scenario - staying in the bloc after another referendum.

The British government has fought to stop the ECJ hearing the case, saying it is irrelevant because ministers have no intention of reversing Brexit, while May has consistently ruled out a second referendum.

“Theresa May wants to blackmail us into voting for her bad deal by thinking the only alternative is the disaster of crashing out with no deal,” Joanna Cherry, a Scottish National Party lawmaker and one of the group of Scottish politicians who instigated the case told Reuters.

“We say (Article 50) can be unilaterally revoked - whether that’s the case or whether the court just says it can be revoked with permission - we’ve got the answers that we need in order as members of parliament to be able to say there is a concrete option of stopping Brexit.”

EXPEDITED
The case was referred to the Luxembourg justices for a ruling by Scotland’s top court and in a demonstration of its importance it has been “expedited” by the ECJ for Tuesday’s one-day hearing before a full court of judges.

Article 50 states that if a state decides to withdraw, it has two years to agree an exit deal with the remaining 27 EU members, although this process can be extended if the European Council unanimously agrees.

There is no mention of whether a state can change its mind. No other member state has ever left the 60-year-old bloc.

However, John Kerr, the British diplomat who drafted the clause, has repeatedly argued that it can be unilaterally reversed.

“The die is not irrevocably cast, there is still time and, until the UK has left the EU, the Article 50 letter can be withdrawn,” he wrote in a recent pamphlet.

Other legal experts are unconvinced, arguing costs already incurred by the other EU states from divorce talks and the clause’s focus on protecting the interests of its remaining members meant it could not be reversed solely at the UK’s whim.

It is not clear when the ECJ will give its ruling but Cherry was optimistic it would come before British lawmakers vote on the deal which is expected in mid-December.