With British politics gridlocked and just 100 days until Brexit, the European Union on Wednesday triggered contingency plans designed to cushion some of the shock of a “no-deal” U.K. exit from the bloc.
The EU measures, announced a day after Britain ramped up its own no-deal planning, are intended to alleviate “major disruption” to people and businesses in sectors including financial services, customs, air transport and climate policy.
European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told reporters that the plan was “an exercise in limiting damage.”
He said the aim was “to turn an abrupt exit into a more soft landing.”
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, but it remains unclear whether lawmakers will approve the divorce agreement Prime Minister Theresa May’s Government has negotiated with the bloc. Leaving without a deal risks plunging the British economy into recession and touching off chaos at the borders.
The 14 EU actions include temporary one to two-year measures to allow UK-EU financial services to continue and a 12-month provision to keep planes flying between Britain and the bloc.
But Dombrovskis stressed that the measures “cannot replicate the benefits of the withdrawal agreement, and certainly it cannot replicate the benefits of EU membership.”
On Tuesday, the British government stepped up UK no-deal preparations, putting 3,500 soldiers on standby and warning thousands of businesses and millions of households to get ready for disruption.
The Government said the plans — which include chartering boats and stockpiling medicines — are a sensible precaution.
But Opposition politicians accuse the Government of trying to scare lawmakers into supporting May’s Brexit deal.
Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday accused May of “a cynical attempt to drive her deeply damaging deal through this House.”
“No-deal would be a disaster for our country and no responsible Government would ever allow it,” Corbyn said.
Many businesses agree. Britain’s five leading business groups said in a rare joint statement that businesses “have been watching in horror” as political infighting made the prospect of a disorderly Brexit more likely.