Brexit deal still possible despite EU-UK deadlock

By Chathushka Perera

LONDON, UK (CWBN)_ Over the course of the month, Downing Street has been adding to the uncertainty behind Brexit negotiations with back-and-forth manoeuvring. Topping off on the anxieties, particularly in the UK, were the resignations of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s advisers, Dominic Cummins and Lee Cain.

However, Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach), Michael Martin, stated that both parties’ ought to attempt to rebuild their trust in one another, which he claimed to have been eroded by the UK’s Internal Market Bill. The bill was presented to the House of Lords on the 20^th of last month and was vehemently rejected with the support of 44 Conservative votes, effectively returning it to the Commons for revision.

While Irish Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, described the bill as “controversial” both within the UK and internationally, it also triggered the concerns of US President-elect, Joe Biden, over the bill’s capacity to breach of international law. The effect of which is expected to strike a blow to the “special relationship” between the UK and US.

Moreover, the bill would also be in breach of certain provisions of the Good Friday Agreement (1998), signed by the British and Irish, alongside the political parties of Northern Ireland, which put an end to the regional conflict.

The EU has demanded that the bill be withdrawn in order for negotiations to make progress and, in the meantime, the deadline for a post-Brexit trade deal is quickly closing in.

Nonetheless, Biden has however showed an intention to prompt a new trade relationship between the US, UK and EU, hence bringing both parties to the table, as opposed to the views of his incumbent counterpart, Donald Trump, who had insisted on bilateral relationships.

A deal in this respect would enable Europe to counter influences posed by the eastern powers, Russia and China, but there is a long way for the two parties to go before they could reconsider foreign and security policy cooperation that has been effectively swept aside by the British Government, claiming that it is unwilling to relinquish its sovereignty and gravity of the referendum to EU oversight, a view that left former PM Theresa May in shock.

Edited by Elishya Perera