For two days beginning Tuesday 12 June, Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May is to face a series of crucial votes in the House of Commons on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which could weaken her negotiating position with the EU on how to leave the European Union. May has also had to face a storm in her own government with her justice minister, Phillip Lee, having loudly announced that same day that he was resigning from the government as he, a pro-European, could not agree with the direction taken in talks with Brussels.
British MEPs were looking at the EU Withdrawal Bill which rescinds the principle of automatic integration of European texts in national legislation. However, a few weeks ago, members of the House of Lords had voted for amendments considerably restricting the margins of manoeuvre for May’s government, by calling for the country to remain in the customs union (the British government now proposes to stay in this union for just one year in a recent negotiating position sent to Brussels – see EUROPE 12035), as well as the possibility for the Parliament to block Brexit if it did not find the final outcome of talks appropriate, and to request that London return to the negotiating table with the EU.
At the beginning of these two days of votes, the British leader warned parliamentarians saying that she is “trying to negotiate the best deal for Britain”. “But if the Lords’ amendments are allowed to stand, that negotiating position will be undermined”, she said. Her warning prompted the secretary of state for justice and pro-EU conservative member, Phillip Lee, to announce his resignation in order to be able to vote freely, media reports say.
According to AFP, the British government and MPs may reach compromise on these sticking points, especially by not giving the parliament the right to adopt a binding motion in the event of there being no deal with Brussels. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)