LUXEMBOURG, 10 Dec 2018:
The EU’s top court today ruled the UK can unilaterally revoke its divorce notice, raising the hopes of pro-Europeans ahead of a crucial vote in the British parliament on prime minister Theresa May’s divorce deal.
Just hours before British lawmakers were originally scheduled to vote on May’s deal, the Court of Justice said in an emergency judgement that London could revoke its Article 50 formal divorce notice with no penalty.
May’s government says the ruling means nothing because it has no intention of reversing its decision to leave the EU on March 29.
But critics of her deal say it provides options — either to delay Brexit and renegotiate terms of withdrawal, or cancel it altogether if British voters change their minds.
“The United Kingdom is free to revoke unilaterally the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU,” the court said.
“Such a revocation, decided in accordance with its own national constitutional requirements, would have the effect that the United Kingdom remains in the EU under terms that are unchanged.”
The future of Brexit remains deeply uncertain as dozens of members of parliament have publicly promised to vote down May’s divorce deal, a compromise that allowed the UK to exit while staying within the EU’s orbit.
Brexit is seen as Britain’s most significant decision since World War Two. Supporters say it frees Britain to trade more widely with the rest of the world; opponents fear it will divide the West as it grapples with the unconventional presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China.
The ultimate Brexit outcome will shape Britain’s £2.2 trillion economy, have far reaching consequences for the unity of the UK and determine whether London can keep its place as one of the top two global financial centres.
In the 23 June 2016 referendum, 17.4 million voters, or 52%, backed Brexit while 16.1 million, or 48%, backed staying in the bloc.
Opponents of Brexit fear it will divide the West as it grapples with the unconventional presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China.
Campaigners hoping to stop Brexit have been buoyed in recent weeks as May herself warned that if her deal was defeated then the UK could face either a no deal Brexit or no Brexit at all.
When asked about the ECJ’s ruling, Michael Gove, the most prominent Brexit campaigner in the British government, said the UK did not want to remain a member of the bloc it first joined in 1973.
“We don’t want to stay in the EU,” Gove, who serves as environment minister, told BBC radio.
“We voted very clearly. 17.4 million people sent a clear message that we wanted to leave the European Union and that also means leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
“So this case is all very well but it doesn’t alter either the referendum vote or the clear intention of the government to leave on March 29.”
British newspapers have reported that May could delay the Dec 11 vote on her deal and the Northern Irish party which props up her government has suggested she should dash to Brussels to clinch better terms. The EU says the agreement is the best it can offer and its substance cannot be changed.
May abruptly decided today to pull a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, throwing Britain’s plan to leave the EU up in the air on the eve of the vote, after repeated warnings from members of parliament she faced a rout.
Her apparent inability to win support for her agreement creates doubt over her own future. If she stays in power, she could seek to get a better deal from the EU at a summit on Dec 13-14, in the hope of putting it before parliament at a later date.
But her enemies were already pouncing on a fiasco.
“We don’t have a functioning government,” opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said. “The government has decided Theresa May’s Brexit deal is so disastrous that it has taken the desperate step of delaying its own vote at the eleventh hour.”
Three of the four living former British prime ministers – John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – have said a second referendum is the way to resolve the crisis.
Some senior EU officials have said Britain should be allowed to remain but could be asked to give up some of the special terms it has acquired over the past four decades, notably a hefty rebate on its payments to the bloc’s budget.
– Reuters