The Telegraph are running an amazing story this morning. It's behind a paywall but you can read it HERE. They claim to have seen a leaked government document with a Plan B involving Britain somehow staying in the EEA. I am not sure there's any truth in the story or even how it might be brought about. The EEA is actually an agreement between EFTA and the EU.
This "Plan B" is claimed as a possible solution to May's deal being rejected by parliament.
This "Plan B" is claimed as a possible solution to May's deal being rejected by parliament.
If we are to be in the EEA we must either be a member of the EU or EFTA. If we aren't in the EU we would need to join EFTA, and Norway has indicated they don't really want us - and who can blame them? The only other way would be to remain a member of the EU and I can't see that happening easily. We have four months to go and adopting this Plan B is the going back to square one that Theresa May talked about on a radio phone-in last week.
I assume this EEA idea is simply to avoid a cliff edge and would be an alternative to the Withdrawal Agreement, the transition period and the trade deal all rolled into one emergency get-you-home kit when your spare tyre turns out to be useless. It is a measure of how difficult it will be to get her deal through parliament.
We now seem to be mixing pantomime with farce. The government is rushing around the stage, trousers round the ankles, frantically tugging on door handles attached to doors that refuse to open. The no-deal door is firmly locked, the PM's deal door is jammed and they are now trying one marked EEA. Several other doors are clearly open. They are marked General Election, People's Vote and No Brexit. Sooner or later the cast will exit through one of them - to groans from the audience.
We now seem to be mixing pantomime with farce. The government is rushing around the stage, trousers round the ankles, frantically tugging on door handles attached to doors that refuse to open. The no-deal door is firmly locked, the PM's deal door is jammed and they are now trying one marked EEA. Several other doors are clearly open. They are marked General Election, People's Vote and No Brexit. Sooner or later the cast will exit through one of them - to groans from the audience.
Personally, I'm not convinced the EEA option is even possible legally or politically - and certainly not in the time allowed. What I think it does show is how worried the government is and how the EU might delay things by extending Article 50 to allow a second referendum, something which is talked about in the article:
"Any extension would require unanimous support from the 27 other EU leaders, and EU sources said it would likely be very limited in nature.
“The extension might only be for a month or so, to make emergency preparations for a ‘no deal’,” said an EU source with knowledge of the thinking of the European Council, which is led by Mr Tusk.
The source added: “The longest an extension could continue until is probably July, when the results of the European Parliament elections are codified, and then it would only be to accommodate a specific move, like a second referendum. Ultimately it will be up to the leaders.”
"Any extension would require unanimous support from the 27 other EU leaders, and EU sources said it would likely be very limited in nature.
“The extension might only be for a month or so, to make emergency preparations for a ‘no deal’,” said an EU source with knowledge of the thinking of the European Council, which is led by Mr Tusk.
The source added: “The longest an extension could continue until is probably July, when the results of the European Parliament elections are codified, and then it would only be to accommodate a specific move, like a second referendum. Ultimately it will be up to the leaders.”
Note that Raab is claiming there is still time to salvage her deal - if only she would junk the backstop and insist "on a new 'exit mechanism' from the backstop that could be subject to 'conditions' to satisfy the concerns of the EU". Unfortunately, he doesn't tell us what that new exit mechanism is. It probably rests on new technology for squaring circles.
I see Dr North at the EU Referendum blog is equally critical of the plan (HERE) but sees in it a hope that Flexcit, his own plan for Brexit, might be resurrected in the future and says, "From
there [following the EFTA/EEA process], if we follow the Flexcit phasing, we would be looking to work
with the existing Efta members to bring the EEA closer to the original concept of the European Economic Space, a 'European village' of co-equals with shared decision-making".
I've never thought his Flexcit objective, which is no less than the wholesale transformation of Europe and the EU, is remotely possible and even the idea of the UK being in the EEA as a rule taker, albeit temporarily for a few years, would never be understood by the British public. When Estonia has more influence over EU affairs than we do Britain would look even more ridiculous then it does now.
Fantasies to the left, delusions to the right. Let us just get back to the top table where we belong.
