BERLIN: Britain must respect its commitments in the withdrawal treaty it signed with the European Union if it wants to have an agreement on future trade relations with the block, the chairman of euro zone finance ministers Pascal Donohoe said on Friday.
In one of the most extraordinary turns since the 2016 Brexit referendum, Britain explicitly said this week that it plans to break international law by breaching parts of the Withdrawal Agreement treaty that is signed in January.
This plunged talks on a future trade relationship between the EU and Britain into crisis less than four months before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU’s orbit at the end of the so called transition period which ends in December.
“As the United Kingdom looks to what kind of future trade relationship it wants with the European Union, a pre-requisite for that is honoring agreement that are already in place,” Donohoe told reporters on entering talks of euro zone ministers.
The European Commission, which conducts talks on the future trade deal with London on behalf of the whole 27-nation bloc, asked Britain on Thursday to drop plans for breaking the treaty with the EU by the end of September.
“It is imperative that the government of the United Kingdom respond back to the call from the Commission … this is a pre-requisite to what any future relationship could look like,” Donohoe said.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor
Comments
0 comment