EDINBURGH (Reuters) – Progress in the Brexit negotiations is needed urgently, British and European business and union representatives said yesterday in a joint plea to London and Brussels ahead of this week’s European Union summit.
“We are calling on the UK government and the EU to inject pace and urgency in the negotiations, bringing about measurable progress, in particular a backstop arrangement to avoid a hard border in Ireland,” a statement from business leaders and unions on both sides of the English channel said.
They appealed to the EU and UK governments to “put jobs and prosperity before politics when seeking solutions that will matter for generations to come.”
With nine months to go before Britain leaves the EU, British Prime Minister Theresa May has been unable to offer any clarity on how trade with the world’s biggest trading bloc will work after Brexit because she is still negotiating a deal.
But industry nervousness has intensified in recent days ahead of the EU summit, and corporations such as Siemens, Airbus and BMW have gone on record about their fears of what a haphazard Brexit may do to their economic interests.
