BRUSSELS: The EU will adopt demands Monday for a transition period that binds Britain by the bloc’s laws for nearly two years after Brexit, a plan that is dividing the British government.
The terms have infuriated pro-Brexit lawmakers in embattled Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party who say it leaves Britain a “vassal state” of Brussels.
European ministers will approve instructions for chief negotiator Michel Barnier for the transition, which the bloc wants to run from March 29, 2019 — when Britain leaves the EU — until December 31, 2020.
The so-called negotiating directives say Britain must follow EU rules “as if it were a member state” during that time but without having any say — even on laws that are passed after Brexit.
The EU guidelines also say the transition period must be “clearly defined and precisely limited in time.”
Talks with Barnier’s counterpart David Davis could begin as early as this week, with the aim of completing them by March so negotiations on future trade ties can start, European sources said.
But the transition negotiations could be more complicated than expected, with high stakes, analysts said.
“The thing for me that is concerning is the time limiting of the transition. That is clearly inadequate for the purposes of negotiating a new trade deal and raises the spectre of a new cliff edge in December 2020,” said Simon Usherwood, deputy director of the research group UK in a Changing Europe.
“I don’t see how we can get the thing done in time,” he told AFP.
With dangerous rifts emerging openly in May’s government over the plan and euroskeptic MPs baying for blood, Davis and other top ministers tried to show a united front at the weekend.
Davis, Finance Minister Philip Hammond and business secretary Greg Clark wrote a joint letter saying that the transition was only intended to give people, businesses and public services time to get ready for the full EU exit.
Britain calls it an “implementation period” and says it should last “around two years.”
But Jacob Rees-Mogg — who leads a group of more than 50 Conservative Brexiteer MPs and made the “vassal state” comment — warned that staying closely aligned to the EU risked making Brexit a “damage limitation exercise.”
There have been open differences in the government, with finance minister Philip Hammond calling for the EU and Britain to move apart only “very modestly.”
Davis, meanwhile, is on a collision course with the EU over his claim last week that Britain could negotiate and even sign its own trade deals around the world during the transition, although they would not come into force until afterwards.
EU officials insist that during the transition period Britain would be bound by the same rules which stipulate that member states cannot sign independent trade deals.
European leaders backed Britain’s call for a transition at a summit in December when they approved an in-principle deal on the terms of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU — citizens’ rights, the Irish border and Britain’s exit bill.
They said it would ease the change for citizens as well as providing a “bridge” to an eventual post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and UK.
Discussions on Britain’s future trading relations with the EU are due to start in April but with the clock ticking May has yet to set out what London wants.
Some member states have called for the transition itself to be extendable if the EU and Britain have still not managed to sort out a future relationship deal when it ends.
But France has led opposition to the plan, sources said.
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EU to back Brexit transition demands as deepening split rocks May
EU to back Brexit transition demands as deepening split rocks May
After accepting US deportees, South Sudan wanted sanctions relief for top official, documents show
JUBA: After agreeing to accept deportees from the United States last year, South Sudan sent a list of requests to Washington that included American support for the prosecution of an opposition leader and sanctions relief for a senior official accused of diverting over a billion dollars in public funds.
The requests, contained in a pair of diplomatic communications made public by the State Department this month, offer a glimpse into the kind of benefits that some governments may have sought as they negotiated with the US over the matter of receiving deportees.
In the documents, the US expresses “appreciation” to South Sudan for accepting the deportees and details the names, nationalities and crimes for which each individual was convicted.
In July, South Sudan became the first African country to receive third-country deportees from the US Rwanda, Eswatini, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea have since received deportees.
The eight deportees to South Sudan included nationals of Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and South Sudan itself.
Contentious deportations
They arrived in the South Sudanese capital of Juba after spending weeks on a US military base in Djibouti, where they were held after a US court temporarily blocked their deportation. Six of the eight men remain at a residential facility in Juba under the supervision of security personnel.
South Sudanese national Dian Peter Domach was later freed, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez, a Mexican, was repatriated in September.
South Sudanese officials have not publicly said what long-term plan is in place for those still in custody. The third-country deportations were highly contentious, criticized by rights groups and others who expressed concern South Sudan would become a dumping ground.
Details of the deal between the US and South Sudan remain murky. It is still unclear what, if anything, South Sudan may have actually received or been promised. The documents only offer a glimpse into what the South Sudanese government hoped to get in return.
In other cases, Human Rights Watch said it saw documents showing the US agreed to pay Rwanda’s government around $7.5 million to take up to 250 deportees. The US will give Eswatini $5.1 million to take up to 160 deportees, according to the group.
For South Sudan, in one communication dated May 12 and marked confidential, South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised eight “matters of concern which the Government of South Sudan believes merit consideration.” These ranged from the easing of visa restrictions for South Sudanese nationals to the construction of a rehabilitation center and “support in addressing the problem of armed civilians.”
Request to lift sanctions
But an eye-catching ask was for the lifting of US sanctions against former Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel as well as Washington’s support for the prosecution of opposition leader Riek Machar, the now-suspended first vice president of South Sudan who faces treason, murder and other criminal charges in a controversial case.
The allegations against Machar stem from a violent incident in March, when an armed militia with historical ties to him attacked a garrison of government troops. Machar’s supporters and some activists describe the charges as politically motivated.
Bol Mel is accused of diverting more than a billion dollars earmarked for infrastructure projects into companies he owns or controls, according to a UN report. He wielded vast influence in the government and was touted by some as Kiir’s likely successor in the presidency until he was dismissed and placed under house arrest in November.
Bol Mel was also viewed as a key figure behind the prosecution of Machar, one of the historical leaders of South Sudan’s ultimately successful quest for independence from Sudan in 2011.
Machar was Kiir’s deputy when they fell out in 2013, provoking the start of civil war as government troops loyal to Kiir fought forces loyal to Machar.
A 2018 peace agreement brought Machar back into government as the most senior of five vice presidents. His prosecution has been widely criticized as a violation of that agreement, and has coincided with a spike in violence that the UN says killed more than 1,800 people between January and September 2025.
The UN has also warned that a resurgence of fighting has brought the country “back to the edge of a relapse into civil war.” Machar is under house arrest in Juba while his criminal trial proceeds slowly.
In its communications with the US, South Sudan also asked for sanctions to be lifted over South Sudanese oil companies “to encourage direct foreign investments,” and for the US to consider investing in other sectors including fossil fuels, minerals and agriculture.
When asked if the US government had provided or promised South Sudan anything in return for accepting the deportees, a State Department official said, “In keeping with standard diplomatic practice, we do not disclose the details of private discussions.”
A spokesman for South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thomas Kenneth Elisapana, declined to comment.
US aid cuts
Despite accepting the US request to admit deportees, relations between the two governments have been strained in recent months.
In December, the US threatened to reduce aid contributions to the country, accusing the government of imposing fees on aid groups and obstructing their operations.
The US has historically been one of the largest donors to South Sudan, providing roughly $9.5 billion in aid since 2011. Over the years, South Sudan’s government has struggled to deliver many of the basic services of a state, and years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on foreign aid.
The requests, contained in a pair of diplomatic communications made public by the State Department this month, offer a glimpse into the kind of benefits that some governments may have sought as they negotiated with the US over the matter of receiving deportees.
In the documents, the US expresses “appreciation” to South Sudan for accepting the deportees and details the names, nationalities and crimes for which each individual was convicted.
In July, South Sudan became the first African country to receive third-country deportees from the US Rwanda, Eswatini, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea have since received deportees.
The eight deportees to South Sudan included nationals of Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and South Sudan itself.
Contentious deportations
They arrived in the South Sudanese capital of Juba after spending weeks on a US military base in Djibouti, where they were held after a US court temporarily blocked their deportation. Six of the eight men remain at a residential facility in Juba under the supervision of security personnel.
South Sudanese national Dian Peter Domach was later freed, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while Jesus Munoz-Gutierrez, a Mexican, was repatriated in September.
South Sudanese officials have not publicly said what long-term plan is in place for those still in custody. The third-country deportations were highly contentious, criticized by rights groups and others who expressed concern South Sudan would become a dumping ground.
Details of the deal between the US and South Sudan remain murky. It is still unclear what, if anything, South Sudan may have actually received or been promised. The documents only offer a glimpse into what the South Sudanese government hoped to get in return.
In other cases, Human Rights Watch said it saw documents showing the US agreed to pay Rwanda’s government around $7.5 million to take up to 250 deportees. The US will give Eswatini $5.1 million to take up to 160 deportees, according to the group.
For South Sudan, in one communication dated May 12 and marked confidential, South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised eight “matters of concern which the Government of South Sudan believes merit consideration.” These ranged from the easing of visa restrictions for South Sudanese nationals to the construction of a rehabilitation center and “support in addressing the problem of armed civilians.”
Request to lift sanctions
But an eye-catching ask was for the lifting of US sanctions against former Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel as well as Washington’s support for the prosecution of opposition leader Riek Machar, the now-suspended first vice president of South Sudan who faces treason, murder and other criminal charges in a controversial case.
The allegations against Machar stem from a violent incident in March, when an armed militia with historical ties to him attacked a garrison of government troops. Machar’s supporters and some activists describe the charges as politically motivated.
Bol Mel is accused of diverting more than a billion dollars earmarked for infrastructure projects into companies he owns or controls, according to a UN report. He wielded vast influence in the government and was touted by some as Kiir’s likely successor in the presidency until he was dismissed and placed under house arrest in November.
Bol Mel was also viewed as a key figure behind the prosecution of Machar, one of the historical leaders of South Sudan’s ultimately successful quest for independence from Sudan in 2011.
Machar was Kiir’s deputy when they fell out in 2013, provoking the start of civil war as government troops loyal to Kiir fought forces loyal to Machar.
A 2018 peace agreement brought Machar back into government as the most senior of five vice presidents. His prosecution has been widely criticized as a violation of that agreement, and has coincided with a spike in violence that the UN says killed more than 1,800 people between January and September 2025.
The UN has also warned that a resurgence of fighting has brought the country “back to the edge of a relapse into civil war.” Machar is under house arrest in Juba while his criminal trial proceeds slowly.
In its communications with the US, South Sudan also asked for sanctions to be lifted over South Sudanese oil companies “to encourage direct foreign investments,” and for the US to consider investing in other sectors including fossil fuels, minerals and agriculture.
When asked if the US government had provided or promised South Sudan anything in return for accepting the deportees, a State Department official said, “In keeping with standard diplomatic practice, we do not disclose the details of private discussions.”
A spokesman for South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thomas Kenneth Elisapana, declined to comment.
US aid cuts
Despite accepting the US request to admit deportees, relations between the two governments have been strained in recent months.
In December, the US threatened to reduce aid contributions to the country, accusing the government of imposing fees on aid groups and obstructing their operations.
The US has historically been one of the largest donors to South Sudan, providing roughly $9.5 billion in aid since 2011. Over the years, South Sudan’s government has struggled to deliver many of the basic services of a state, and years of conflict have left the country heavily reliant on foreign aid.
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