Another debate on Brexit deal to be held on Thursday

REUTERS - The British Parliament will hold another parliamentary debate on the Brexit deal on Thursday, according to James Slack, the official spokesperson for British Prime Minister Theresa May. Slack on Monday said that May will update members of parliament following her latest Brexit talks with the European Union on Tuesday. Earlier last month, the House of Commons voted down May's Brexit deal with the EU, demanding her to renegotiate and amend the so-called "Irish backstop", temporary arrangement to avoid a hard border or physical infrastructure such as customs houses or checkpoints along the Ireland-Northern Ireland border. The backstop has become one of the main stumbling blocks to an agreement between the EU and Britain, with the EU clearly stating it will not reopen negotiations over the withdrawal agreement reached between the two sides. The EU insists that the backstop should remain in place until and unless a better solution is found to avoid a hard border after Brexit, whereas most of the British MPs are afraid the backstop could tie Britain to EU rules indefinitely through the backstop without a time limit. On Monday, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said at a press conference with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, that Britain should take action and "find the ways and means to build a positive majority between the two negative majorities that exist today in the House of Commons" if it wants to reach a final Brexit deal ahead of the March 29 deadline. Barnier noted that the "Irish backstop" is just a safeguarding policy, which will not affect UK-EU relations in the future. According to the British Parliament's agenda, the vote on the withdrawal agreement is set to begin sometime in the middle of this month. If no deal is agreed this time, the parliament will vote to decide further actions.