The European Parliament today announced its support for the start of the next phase of negotiations between Britain and the EU on Brexit. "The European Parliament has adopted its resolution on Brexit, noting that sufficient progress has been made in the negotiations. It is an important stage that allows us to move to the second phase of the negotiations ", said the President of the House, Antonio Tagiani.
Of the 686 MEPs who took part in the Strasbourg plenary session and took part in the vote, 556 voted in favor, 62 against and 68 abstained. MEPs are therefore urging the 27 EU leaders (excluding Britain) to decide on Friday, at a summit in Brussels, the transition to the next phase of negotiations, the statement said.
They insist that the British government must fully comply with its commitments to the EU, as expressed in the agreement reached last Friday with Brussels. In their resolution, they also clearly express their dissatisfaction with the contradictory statements made on Sunday by the British Minister for Brexit, David Davis.
"Comments such as those made by David Davis, who described the results of the first phase of the negotiations as a 'mere declaration of intent', jeopardize the good faith established during these negotiations," MEPs warned.
Davis said Sunday that London would not pay its 40- to 45-million-euro divorce bill to the EU unless it reached a trade deal with Brussels. He also stressed the non-binding, in his view, nature of the compromise signed on Friday.
This compromise mainly concerns the principles of the Brexit financial settlement in the framework of an agreement on the terms of the United Kingdom's exit from the EU at the end of March 2019. It paves the way for discussions on the future trade relationship between Brussels and London, in which European leaders are expected to give the green light on Friday in Brussels.
The European Parliament's Brexit coordinator, the Belgian liberal Guy Verhofstadt, said today that he had spoken with David Davis yesterday. "He assured me that it was not his intention, nor that of the British government, to back down, to withdraw their commitments," he said.
For his part, the head of the EU negotiating team, Michel Barnier, once again warned London not to try to back down from last week's agreement with Brussels, which includes a series of conditions for a consensual divorce.