Brexit transition deal may avert UK economic ‘catastrophe’
It will be “totally impossible” for Britain to wrap up a trade pact with the EU within two years and a transition deal will be needed to avert “a catastrophe” for the British economy, according to one of the EU’s most eminent lawyers.
Jean-Claude Piris, the head of the EU Council’s legal service from 1988-2010, said a trade deal would comprise “thousands of pages and hundreds of articles” and there was no chance of it being completed before a scheduled Brexit in 2019.
The comments by Mr Piris, the legal architect of a succession of EU treaties from Maastricht to Lisbon, directly contradict claims by Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister, that both a divorce deal and a trade accord can be signed within two years of Article 50 being triggered.
Google headline or subscriber link
https://www.ft.com/content/5b423566-...3-7e34c07b46ef