May’s plans included Britain’s departure from the single market, as well as spelling out that no deal would be better than a bad deal, as far as the government was concerned.
Now the Tories are seeking an agreement with Northern Ireland’s DUP in order to form a government.
According to the statement issued on Thursday, the European Union and the United Kingdom are set to begin negotiations on Article 50, which was triggered on March 29 and sets out the procedure for withdrawing from the 27-member bloc, reports Efe news.
The European Commission said the one-day meeting between its chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary David Davis will take place “as part of the sequenced approach to the talks” set out by the EU, which require progress to be made on withdrawal arrangements before any talks on trade can begin.
In return for the guarantee, Davis expects Brussels to drop its demand that EU citizens in the United Kingdom will retain access to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to uphold their rights in Britain.
More pressing is the issues of providing effective guarantees to some 5 million people – around 3 million European Union citizens living in Britain plus nearly 2 million Britons in Europe – who want to know what the future holds after Brexit.
The chancellor of the exchequer was asked whether he favored a softer version of Brexit – such as British membership of the EU single market or of a customs union.
Britain has announced that Brexit negotiations will begin on June 19, despite earlier speculation they could be delayed, as Prime Minister Theresa May is still scrambling to prop up her minority government.
May’s finance minister, Philip Hammond, said on Friday that Britain should prioritise protecting jobs and economic growth.
Britain’s Brexit ministry said on Friday that no deal could be struck on exiting unless the future relationship with the bloc was taken into account. “The withdrawal and future are intimately linked”.
“I’m not going to give a blow by blow account of how we propose to take that discussion forward”, he said.
Barnier and British Brexit Secretary David Davis will open the talks on Monday at 11 a.m.in Brussels and they’ll continue on Tuesday with top officials from the European Commission and the U.K.’s Brexit department.
Since last week’s general election, there have been calls for a new cross-party approach to talks, but Downing Street has said its strategy will not change.