Rutte Says EU Won’t Renegotiate Brexit Agreement: Summit Update

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May heads to a summit in Brussels on Thursday to seek help from the other 27 European Union leaders in shoring up domestic support for the Brexit withdrawal agreement. All times are local Brussels.

Key Developments

  • EU leaders will try to offer May cover for when she returns to the U.K.
  • The bloc will pledge to explore further assurances for the U.K. if needed
  • DUP Leader Arlene Foster said “tinkering around the edges” won’t do

Bettel says not time for Brexit Christmas presents (12:34 p.m.)

“The time of concessions has passed,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel told reporters in Brussels before the meeting of EU leaders. “We are just before Christmas, but it’s not time to make presents,” he said. “We are for the moment more united than politicians in the U.K. and I hope that they will be behind Theresa May to defend the deal.”

U.K. red lines make it difficult, Verhofstadt says (12:31 p.m.)

“We don’t want the Withdrawal Agreement reopened again,” European Parliament Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt told reporters. The EU Parliament wants as close a relationship as possible between the U.K. and the EU, but “the red lines of the U.K. make it so difficult,” he said.

Rutte says not possible to renegotiate deal (12:27 p.m.)

“We all made very clear that renegotiating the resolved agreement is not possible,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters in Brussels before the summit. “But I do sense that many of us are willing to look at ways to clarify what we collectively achieved and discussed and decided, particularly to make clear that the Northern Ireland backstop is both for the U.K. as well as for the European Union not desirable that it would come into force.”

Earlier:

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

Bloomberg
Follow All The Political News In India On BloombergQuint