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NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 13 MARCH 2019 2 2013, January Prime Minister David Cameron says that if his Conservative Party wins the next election, it would seek to rene- gotiate Britain's relationship with the EU, and give people a choice, by end 2017, between staying in the Union under the new terms, or withdrawing. 2015, May The Conservatives win the gen- eral election, enabling Cameron to fulfil his party's electoral mani- festo of renegotiating the UK's EU membership. A "reform and renego- tiation" process with the bloc starts. 2016, February Following intense negotiations, Cam- eron obtains the signatures of the 27 other EU member states on a reform package. Amongst the highlights of the package is an exemption for the UK from "ever closer union", and a four- year ban on in-work benefits for new EU migrants. Later that month, a ref- erendum date of 23 June is announced. 2016, 23 June The Brexit referendum is held, and 51.9% vote in favour of leaving the EU. Although the referendum was non- binding, the government promises to implement the result. Right after the result, Cameron announces he will re- sign as prime minister and Conserva- tive Party leader. 2016, 13 July Two days after becoming Conserva- tive Party leader, Theresa May is ap- pointed Prime Minister. 2017, 29 March The UK serves its notice of withdraw- al, triggering Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. The scheduled date for Brexit is 29 March 2019. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says Britain's decision to leave is "a choice they will regret one day". 2017, 8 June A general election is held, with May having called it two months prior, say- ing it was the "only way to guarantee certainty and security for years ahead". The Conservatives w i n , but lose their majority in the House of Commons, necessitating the forma- tion of a minority government with a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Northern Irish Democratic Union- ist Party (DUP). 2017, June Then British Brexit Secretary David Davis begins the negotiation process with the European Commission's Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier. 2018, June Parliament approves the Withdrawal Act, which makes existing EU law UK law, and says the EU can't make future laws for Britain. 2018, July Davis resigns, saying he felt the UK was "giving away too much and too easily" to the EU in the negotiations. Dominic Raab replaces him as Brexit Secretary. 2018, October European Council President Donald Tusk says a UK-EU trade agreement should be reached by the mid-October EU summit. 2018, November After more than a year of often trou- blesome discussions – the biggest sticking point of which was the issue of the Irish border and the associated backstop, meant to ensure the border remains open after Brexit – a draft withdrawal deal is concluded and ap- proved by May's cabinet. This leads to a slew of resignations in the Prime Min- ister's cabinet, including Raab's, who says he cannot support the agreement. Stephen Barclay replaces him. Later in the month, EU ministers endorse the agreement, which now has to be ap- proved in the UK parliament. 2018, 10 December May calls off a scheduled vote on the deal, saying it "would be re- jected by a significant margin" if voted on at that point in time. She said she would be renegotiating the deal with the EU. A few days later, however, the mem- ber states' heads of gov- ernment confirmed that there could be no fur- ther negotiations on the terms of withdrawal. As the chance of a "no deal" scenar- io started increasing, later in December, the EU Commission announced a Contingency Action Plan. 2019, 19 January MPs in the Commons shot down the deal brought forward by May's gov- ernment with 432 votes against and 202 votes in favour. Later, Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn tabled a motion of no confidence in the government, which was won by the government with a margin of 325 to 306. 2019, February May holds more talks in Brussels. Lat- er in the month, the Commons votes overwhelmingly to make mandatory a timetable which would start on 12 March and would give MPs the right to approve or reject the government's draft agreement, or to accept or reject a "no deal" Brexit, or to extend or not the Article 50 deadline of 29 March 2019. 2019, 11 March May announced she has achieved "legally-binding" changes to the with- drawal deal when it comes to prevent- ing the proposed Irish backstop from being put in place indefinitely. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar backs the deal. mcosta@mediatoday.com.mt Clockwise from left: British Prime MInister Theresa May, European Council president Donald Tusk, Britain's first Brexit minister, David Davies and the European Commission's Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier Brexit: A timeline Compiled by Massimo Costa CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Despite May's assertions, leading Brexit advocates within her party, as well as their coalition partners the Democratic Unionist Party, have both rejected the deal, insisting that May's deal did not give sufficient assurance that the UK will not be per- manently tied to the EU. "Sufficient progress has not been achieved at this time," the DUP said in a statement before tonight's vote. May called on MPs to "come together" and prove that de- mocracy came before "party, faction or personal ambition". She said MPs could not serve the country by over- turning decision by the Brit- ish people. In a tweet during the debate, the EU's chief Brexit negotia- tor said that from Tuesday's debate he had concluded that "there seems to be a danger- ous illusion that the UK can benefit from a transition in the absence of the withdrawal agreement". "Let me be clear: the only le- gal basis for a transition is the withdrawal agreement. No withdrawal agreement means no transition." May had hoped that her new deal would be accepted by MPs and though a num- ber of Conservatives who had previously voted against her deal, pledged to vote in favour of it this time round, several other Brexiteers responded to doubts raised by UK attorney- general Geoffrey Cox who said Britian faced an "unchanged risk" of being trapped in the so-called backstop to avoid a hard Irish border. The backstop is a measure intended to make sure that the Irish border remains open whatever the outcome of the negotiations. PN reaction In a statement, Nationalist Party spokesman David Stel- lini said the UK vote was very worrying. "It is not good news for Mal- ta and it is not good news for neither Europe nor the UK," he said. "A no-deal Brexit could have lasting effects even on Malta and this is why the Nation- alist Party has insisted time and time again in Parliament and outside, that the Maltese Government should be fully prepared for such an eventu- ality." Stellini said that despite the PN's insistence to do so, the Maltese Government had not taken any action so far in this regard. UK Parliament will vote today on no-deal Brexit

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