EU warns Theresa May: Back-stepping may suspend future deals

Brussels, December 15: Trouble ties for Britain is knotting more as European Union (EU) leaders have warned Theresa May that any kind of back stepping in UK’s commitment in last week’s agreement will lead to suspension of future trade deals.

Despite The EU has set the British cabinet a three-month deadline to provide clarity on its approach to a future trade deal. At Thursday night’s dinner meeting of EU leaders at the two-day Brussels summit, the British prime minister told the leaders of the remaining EU states that she wanted to see a particular focus on the transition period to “bring greater certainty to businesses in the UK and across the EU”, according to sources briefed on her remarks.

As leaders prepared to agree on Friday morning that sufficient progress had been made in the first phase of the negotiations to move the talks on, concerns were further raised over whether May had sufficient grip to offer an agreed UK position on the future.

However, the British prime minister reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to delivering a smooth and orderly exit from the EU.

May told the leaders that the British government “makes no secret of wanting to move on to the next phase and to approaching it with ambition and creativity”. “I believe this is in the best interests of the UK and the European Union,” May said. “A particular priority should be agreement on the implementation period so that we can bring greater certainty to businesses in the UK and across the 27.”