EU pleads with UK parliament to end Brexit impasse

European leaders are hoping that British MPs can find a way to end the Brexit impasse and accept the May’s deal, with the threat of a no-deal scenario building after EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that it will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement.

On Friday, May met with a few EU leaders in Brussels in a bid to garner support for alterations for her deal in a hope to appease disgruntled MPs in the House of Commons, but some European leaders were adamant that the UK prime minister accept the deal she has.

No-deal Brexit on the cards

The Belgian prime minister showed no interest in helping May secure a better Brexit deal, with him saying at the EU Summit that a no-deal scenario is a ‘realistic prospect’.

‘Our country must be prepared for all Brexit scenarios in the interests of our citizens and businesses,’ Michel tweeted. ‘We hope the deal gets green light,’ he added. ‘But we need to be ready.’

However, other EU leaders were a little more optimistic, with the Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz saying that behind the scenes European leaders are still happy to discuss alternative scenarios for the UK’s exit from the bloc.

‘We have made clear that the backstop for Northern Ireland will be a provisional not a definitive arrangement,’ Kurz tweeted.

May hopes to rescue Brexit deal

On Thursday, the UK prime minister arrived in Brussels hoping to salvager her Brexit deal, only for EU leaders to accuse her of lacking key selling points that will pacify MPs in parliament.

May had hoped that EU leaders offer her some concessions that would make her Brexit deal more palatable for MPs back home. But her contemporaries in Europe echoed similar sentiments of Juncker who made it clear that ‘there is no room whatsoever for renegotiation’.