BRUSSELS • The European Union has adopted red lines for a transition period that binds Britain by the bloc's laws for nearly two years after Brexit without having any policymaking power.
The plan has sparked deep divisions in British Prime Minister Theresa May's government, with eurosceptic lawmakers saying it leaves the country a "vassal state" of Brussels.
European affairs ministers yesterday took just two minutes to green-light instructions for the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on the transition, which the bloc wants to run from March 29 next year - when Britain leaves the EU - until Dec 31, 2020.
Mr Barnier's deputy Sabine Weyand said a meeting of European affairs ministers in Brussels "adopts guidelines for Brexit negotiations within two minutes: status quo transition without institutional representation, lasting... to Dec 31, 2020".
The so-called negotiating directives say Britain would retain access to the EU's single market during that time, but in return must follow EU rules "as if it were a member state", without any voting rights.
Irish European Affairs Minister Helen McEntee ruled out Britain having any power to vet EU laws passed during the transition, the Financial Times newspaper reported, saying London could not be allowed to undermine the single market.
"When the UK leaves the European Union, they will not be a voice around the table," she said.
Britain's Brexit Minister David Davis said yesterday that after the transition period, he expects some countries to want to renegotiate free trade deals made by the EU.
"In the case of the big ones (trade agreements), South Korea would be one of them.
"We would normally expect them to want to do a degree of renegotiation, both in terms of our own market access but also in terms of access to them," he told a committee in the Upper House of Parliament.
Transition talks between Mr Barnier and Mr Davis could begin as early as this week, with the aim of completing them by March, so negotiations on future trade ties can start, European sources said.
Mr Davis had signalled that Britain was prepared to accept the EU terms for the transition period, which include following the bloc's rules without having a say in EU policymaking.
But with concern in parts of the Conservative Party that transition would represent a humiliating loss of sovereignty for Britain, Mr Davis said last Friday that negotiators would try to find a way to avoid having to accept rules made in Brussels that damaged British interests.
Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, meanwhile urged Britain to agree "as soon as possible" on the legal text of December's in-principle agreement on the terms of the divorce. That deal paved the way for the EU and Britain to move on to discuss the transition.
Britain asked for a transition period of around two years to ease the impact of Brexit on people, public services and businesses, and to provide more time to conclude any eventual EU-UK trade pact.
But Mrs May's office has warned the talks could be tough.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
