Brexit: tangible progress still needed on withdrawal terms

Sufficient progress on the EU’s priority aims, a prerequisite for negotiating any transition period or future relationship between the EU and UK, has not been achieved, MEPs say.

The government leaders of the EU 27 member states should postpone their assessment of Brexit on 20 October as “sufficient progress” has not been made on three key aims unless the fifth round of talks on the UK’s withdrawal from the EU delivers a major breakthrough, says a resolution passed  by 557 votes to 92, with 29 abstentions, on Tuesday.

Although Parliament welcomes the clarifications by Prime Minister May in her recent speech in Florence, MEPs expect the UK government to table, without delay, specific proposals to:

• safeguard the full set of rights that 4.5 million EU and UK citizens currently enjoy,
• honour the UK’s financial obligations to the EU in full,
• resolve the Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland border issue, in full compliance with the Good Friday Agreement.

An additional condition for concluding the first phase of negotiations is a guarantee that EU law will be respected until the UK’s official withdrawal from the EU.

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