EU chief says UK cannot unilaterally change bilateral Brexit agreement

The president of the European Union’s government arm stated Wednesday that the United Kingdom can’t unilaterally change the bilateral Brexit settlement with out destroying world belief within the nation.

Insisting that probabilities for a future commerce deal have been slipping away by the day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen instructed EU lawmakers that plans by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to renege on components of the UK-EU withdrawal settlement dimmed these hopes even additional.

What’s extra, von der Leyen asserted, Britain is throwing its good identify to the wind by not respecting a deal it signed in December.

“It cannot be unilaterally changed, disregarded,”“ she said in her State of the Union address. “This is a matter of law and trust and good faith.”

Von der Leyen drove residence the purpose by quoting from a 1975 speech by former British Prime Minister and conservative icon Margaret Thatcher.

“Britain does not break treaties. It would be bad for Britain, bad for our relations with the rest of the world and bad for any future treaty on trade,” von der Leyen quoted Thatcher’s speech as saying.

Johnson has known as his plan to unilaterally rewrite Britain’s divorce cope with the EU an insurance coverage coverage in opposition to any unreasonable behaviour by the bloc.

The Prime Minister stated his proposed regulation provides the UK authorities the ability to override parts of the withdrawal settlement as a result of the EU may “go to extreme and unreasonable lengths” in its therapy of former member Britain.

Under persistent questioning by Labour lawmaker Hilary Benn throughout a parliamentary committee listening to Wednesday, Johnson was requested whether or not the EU was “negotiating in good faith.”

“I don’t believe they are,″ he said. Johnson added later in the hearing: “It is always possible that I am mistaken, and perhaps they will prove my suspicions wrong.″

Five former British prime ministers have criticized Johnson’s willingness to break international law. The government’s top law officer for Scotland resigned Wednesday because of concerns about Johnson’s legislation.

Johnson later secured support for an amendment meant to assuage the discomfort among members of his Conservative Party. The compromise would allow lawmakers to vote before the government took any actions that broke international law.

Von der Leyen said the EU would always respect the agreements that get its signature and “we will never backtrack on that.”

The UK withdrew from the EU’s political establishments on Jan. 31 however stays in a tariff-free transition interval till the top of the yr whereas negotiators work out the phrases of a future commerce relationship.

The European Parliament would wish to approve any commerce deal, and the chief of the most important group of the legislature, stated that any deal would stand no probability with EU lawmakers if the UK disrespected even the slightest paragraph of the Brexit settlement.

“It makes no sense to negotiate a future agreement (with) a British Prime Minister who is throwing out of the window the agreement that he signed himself,” Manfred Weber of the center-right European People’s Party stated.

Weber warned: “Great Britain, you are losing your credibility at the global level.”