Theresa May is increasingly isolated. After the postponement, on Monday 10 December, of the Westminster ratification vote on theBrexit deal, the British premier is trying at the last minute to renegotiate the agreement with the European Union: today the meetings with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and then to dinner with the president of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, who, however, reiterated that no life preserver will arrive from either Berlin or Brussels. Angela Merkel has already made it clear that she is not willing to help London, while Juncker specified that "the agreement we have reached is the best and only possible, there is no room for maneuver for new negotiations". A cold shower for the British premier who just yesterday postponed the vote to ratify the agreement in Parliament, admitting that the text would be rejected. May had told the Municipalities that she wanted to go to Brussels before the Council, scheduled for Thursday, to re-discuss and have "reassurances" on some points of the agreement. But it seems that this "tour" of consultations is not destined to produce the desired results.
Indeed, Juncker also added a touch of irony when speaking to the European Council: “Tonight we will have a surprise guest: Brexit. I'm surprised because we agreed with the British government and apparently there are problems when approaching the goal”. On the one hand, the number one of the EU Commission assures that there is "margin for further clarifications and interpretations". But, at the same time, he reiterates that the European Union will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement concluded with the United Kingdom at the end of two years of difficult negotiations. The same line was also expressed by the Austrian minister for Europe Gernot Bluemel (current EU president), on the sidelines of the General Affairs Council. “I have decided to convene a European Council on Brexit on Thursday. We will not renegotiate the agreement, and in particular the backstop, but we are ready to discuss how to facilitate UK ratification. Time is running out, we will also discuss our preparation for a no-deal scenario,” EU Council President Donald Tusk added on Twitter.
