After a long and grueling negotiations process, the United Kingdom and the European Union reached an agreement on the details of an orderly Brexit in November β only for the British House of Commons to reject the deal in January. Then, last month, lawmakers asked Prime Minister Theresa May's government to renegotiate the section of the agreement that would keep the country in a customs arrangement with the bloc until the sides can find a permanent solution that will keep the border between Northern Ireland and EU member the Republic of Ireland open, lest its closure reignite sectarian problems on the island.
Since then, May and her team have gone back-and-forth with Brussels, searching for a way to make the so-called Irish backstop easier for the Commons to accept, but an agreement remains elusive. With the United Kingdom's scheduled March 29 departure day drawing ever-nearer, a series of expected votes in the country's Parliament next week will determine Brexit's future.
As the March 29 Brexit date approaches, the British House of Commons will have to make crucial decisions about the country's future. Next week, lawmakers will have to decide whether to approve the exit agreement that London negotiated with Brussels, leave without a deal or ask the European Union for more time. The British government would have several options if the bloc gave it more time to draft a new Brexit plan. It could:. Delaying Brexit would not reduce the uncertainty about the future of the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union, as questions about when, how and even whether it will occur would remain unanswered.
Profile Notifications Sign Out. Mar 9, GMT. What Will Happen Next Week? On March 12, the British government will once again submit the withdrawal agreement to a vote in the House of Commons. British officials and Brussels are currently negotiating tweaks to the Irish backstop.
Hard-line Brexiteers want to build in a sunset provision on the backstop or, alternatively, a clause that would permit the United Kingdom to unilaterally terminate it. Brussels, however, has rejected both options, offering instead only additional promises that the backstop is not intended to be permanent. As a result, the document that the Commons will consider on March 12 won't likely be very different from the one it rejected in January by a vote of to If parliamentarians reject the withdrawal agreement on March 12, May's government has promised to ask them to vote on the following day on whether they wish to exit the European Union without a deal.
