British Prime Minister Theresa May said she would seek a “pragmatic solution” to the impasse over Brexit when she tries to reopen talks with Brussels in the coming days.
UK MPs last week backed a call for May to return to Brussels to secure a new Brexit deal that puts “alternative arrangements” in place of the controversial backstop — a kind of insurance policy designed to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
Under the backstop, the UK would remain in a customs union with the EU in the absence of a trade deal, and Northern Ireland would stay aligned to some EU rules.
May argued that lawmakers would be “happy with the current backstop if there was a time limit or unilateral exit mechanism.”
“I will be armed with a fresh mandate, new ideas and a renewed determination to agree a pragmatic solution that delivers the Brexit the British people voted for, while ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland,” she wrote.
However, EU leaders have maintained that the Withdrawal Agreement, including the backstop, cannot be renegotiated. Despite the challenges, May insisted in the article that she would “deliver Brexit on time”.