The clouds darkened over Europe's slowing economy on Wednesday as the German government slashed its growth forecast and said concerns about a chaotic Brexit and trade tensions were holding back the continent's powerhouse. Germany's Economy Ministry said Wednesday it was cutting its 2018 forecast to 1% from 1.8% in its previous outlook issued last fall.
The Polish Prime Minister and senior German politicians have urged Brussels to strike a Brexit deal with Britain in the first sign of divisions within the European Union over its blanket opposition to offering fresh concessions to Theresa May.
United States lobby groups for agriculture and pharmaceutical firms want UK standards changed to be closer to those of the US in a post-Brexit trade deal. The meat lobby wants the sale of growth hormone-fed beef, currently banned in the UK and EU, to be allowed in the UK.
British lawmakers on Tuesday instructed Prime Minister Theresa May to demand that Brussels replace the Irish border arrangement known as the “backstop”, in a last-ditch attempt to renegotiate an exit treaty that the European Union says it will not change.
France on Tuesday rejected any renegotiation of the EU-UK divorce deal and urged Britain to make credible proposals after British lawmakers passed a motion instructing their government to secure changes to a key element of the deal.
The European Union on Monday adopted quotas for farming produce it will accept from third countries after Britain leaves the bloc and acknowledged this could happen before it has concluded talks with them on the subject.
The United Kingdom government will support a backbench amendment to the Brexit deal that calls for the planned Irish backstop to be replaced by alternative arrangements. Tory MPs will be told to vote for Sir Graham Brady's proposal when the Commons votes on a series of amendments to Theresa May's plan on Tuesday.
There is a high risk of the UK crashing out of the EU without a deal by accident, the EU's deputy chief negotiator Sabine Weyand has said. She added there was “full ownership of what was agreed” in the EU, but “no ownership” of it in the UK Parliament. And it was a challenge to see how a majority for any deal could be built among MPs, she added.
Gibraltar has intensified its contact on Brexit with senior United Kingdom parliamentarians both in the House of Commons and the House of Lords in order to put across the position of Gibraltar. The Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia took advantage of their visit to London last week to meet opinion-formers on the Remain and the Leave sides of the argument.
Theresa May is being urged to secure changes from the EU to the Northern Irish backstop element of her Brexit deal to get it past parliament. Ex-foreign secretary Boris Johnson says winning a freedom clause would be unadulterated good Brexit news.