UK PM Theresa May cautions: The alternative to my Brexit deal is no deal

EU officials were working on a sensitive Irish protocol to the draft Brexit treaty with Britain, as part of what Barnier has called efforts to "de-dramatise" the issue and get a deal.

By: Reuters | London | Updated: September 17, 2018 2:14:54 pm

UK PM Theresa May to meet Scotland's Sturgeon after Brexit standoff

British Prime Minister Theresa May. (Source: AP)

British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned rebels in her party that the alternative to her potential Brexit deal with the EU is no deal. The United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29 and yet little is clear: There is, so far, no full exit agreement and some rebels in May’s Conservative Party have threatened to vote down a deal if she clinches one.

“I think that the alternative to that will be having no deal,” May told BBC TV. The main sticking point to agreeing a deal between Britain and the EU is the issue of ensuring there will be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit.

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The Times newspaper reported that the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, is working on a new protocol text outlining to use technology to minimise checks on the border. Under the EU plan, goods could be tracked using barcodes on shipping containers under “trusted-trader” schemes administered by registered companies, the Times reported.

Reuters reported on Sept. 12 that EU officials were working on a sensitive Irish protocol to the draft Brexit treaty with Britain, as part of what Barnier has called efforts to “de-dramatise” the issue and get a deal.

The proposals are to be circulated to European governments after the Conservative Party conference which starts on Sept. 30, according to the Times. The “revised draft of the Northern Ireland protocol”, according to a diplomatic note of talks between EU ambassadors, will propose that most new checks would not happen at any border, the Times said.