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U.K. leader loses 3rd vote on Brexit plan

The United Kingdom is issuing British passports without the words "European Union" on the front cover despite the delay to Brexit, BBC News reports.The U.K. government had said the new burgundy passports would be introduced starting several days ago, on March 30.

"Passports that include the words European Union will continue to be issued for a short period after this date," Her Majesty's Passport Office, which issues U.K. passports, said in a statement. "You will not be able to choose whether you get a passport that includes the words European Union, or a passport that does not."

The office said "both designs will be equally valid for travel."

The rollout is part of a two-stage design change that will see new blue passports being "phased in gradually" later this year. And it comes even though Brexit has been delayed.

Initially, the deadline for Britain to leave the European Union was March 29, but the EU granted the U.K. an extension, CBS News' Haley Ott reported. The deadline is now April 12, but the U.K. has asked for another extension.

Susan Hindle Barone, who said on Twitter she received a new passport on Friday, tweeted she was "TRULY APPALLED" by the change to the document's cover.

"Dear Passport Agency, @HM_Passport We're still in the EU - Why doesn't my new passport reflect that?" she tweeted.

British Prime Minister Theresa May formally asked the EU on Friday to delay Britain's departure from the bloc until June 30, hoping to avoid a potentially damaging "no-deal" crash-out in mid-April. European Council President Donald Tusk made a counteroffer. He proposed an indefinite time frame and urged 27 other EU states to offer the U.K. a "flextension" -- a delay of up to one year, CBS News' Ott reported.

Tusk will seek to get his concept approved at an EU summit scheduled to take place in mid April, according to EU officials.

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London Friday was meant to be the day Britain formally ceased to be a member of the European Union. But three years after the public referendum calling for the divorce, the two sides appeared no closer to agreeingon an amicable separation. Even Britain has yet to figure out what it wants.

British lawmakers have made it abundantly clear, however, what they don't want: the hard-won draft "Brexit" plan that Prime Minister Theresa May negotiated with the EU. On Friday afternoon, Parliament rejected for a third time May's withdrawal deal, or at least the most elemental part of it: the legal withdrawal agreement.

The vote leaves the U.K. closer to a possible "crash out" of the European Union on April 12 with no deal in place risking a dramatic impact on the British economy. Or Britain could seek a much longer delay to the process from the EU.

May's government stripped out all of the "political agreement" aspect of her draft deal to bring it to a vote on Friday because she has been forbidden by the legislature from bringing the exact same deal back for a third vote.

But it wasn't just that she needed to present an altered plan for a vote; she also knew the devil was in the details.

Nobody really knows for sure. Lawmakers will gather again on Monday to hold another series of votes on a range of alternative plans to May's. But they tried that just days ago and not one of the eight options put forward gained majority backing from lawmakers.

As CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reported from Parliament on Friday, there is no clear path to Brexit.

"I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this house," May herself noted immediately after losing the vote. But she vowed to "continue to press the case for an orderly Brexit."

Calls were made quickly, however, for May to step down, and the prospect of a new general election was also rising.

There are still huge differences of opinion in London over key aspects of how any divorce should work, most notably how to keep goods and people flowing smoothly across the border between Northern Ireland (part of Britain) and Ireland (an independent nation and EU member). The small frontier is the only land border between the U.K. and the EU, and it has essentially been an invisible line for decades, since peace was restored after years of sectarian violence on the island; "The Troubles."

On Wednesday, May even offered to resign the premiership if lawmakers backed her deal, but the concession didn't work. She lost by 58 votes.

The Prime Minister may now seek another, longer extension to Britain's exit from the EU, but it isn't clear if May will be allowed to remain in power long enough to continue driving the process not that a new general election would bring any near-term certainty to the Brexit fiasco.

There were also mounting calls after Friday's vote for an outright revocation of the "Article 50" measure that the U.K. filed under EU law, officially putting the Brexit process in motion. Some Members of Parliament want Article 50 revoked to give the British legislature more time to find a consensus plan. Others want it revoked to simply stop the process, and possibly not resume it.

EU leaders said right after the vote that it had made a "no-deal" Brexit even more likely, and they reissued their call for Britain's lawmakers to decide on and then tell the other 27 members states what they want.

"The risk of a no-deal Brexit is very real," Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte told journalists right after the vote in London. "One of the two routes to an orderly Brexit seems now to be closed. This leaves only the other route, which is for the British to make clear what they want before April 12."

Poland's prime minister said before the vote that the European Union was open to further extending Britain's departure from the bloc. Premier Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters, after talks with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, that if May's bid in the House of Commons failed, the EU was "open to extending the departure process" on a motion from London, by "six or nine or 12 months, these options are available." But they only want to do that if it looks like such a delay will yield progress at breaking the deadlock in London.

In a statement released on Friday, the European Commission said: "As per the European Council (Article 50) decision on 22 March, the period provided for in Article 50(3) is extended to 12 April. It will be for the UK to indicate the way forward before that date, for consideration by the European Council. A "no-deal" scenario on 12 April is now a likely scenario."

Many Brexit backers in Britain, including in May's own Conservative Party, would be loathe to see the process dragged out much longer, fearing it could lead to death-by-delay of the mandate given by the public in the 2016 referendum.

Retired charity worker Mandy Childs, one of a band of hard-core Brexit supporters who walked across England to London under the slogan "Leave Means Leave," said she felt "heartbroken."

"We were told over a 100 times by a British prime minister that we would be leaving on the 29th of March, 2019," she said.

"To do that, promise the British people that and then say 'Actually, no, we need to just put it back' absolute betrayal. And how dare she?"

Opinion polls have shown that since the referendum, as the complexities of the divorce have become apparent and the "Vote Leave" campaign has come under mounting criticism for its tactics during the run-up to the public vote, the tide has likely turned, and a thin majority now appears to be against leaving the EU at all.

Indeed hundreds of people did join the "March to Leave" rally that trooped through central London on Friday, but the numbers were dwarfed by a huge demonstration in the British capital over the weekend, demanding a second public vote, with many rejecting any Brexit at all.

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After World War II the countries of western Europe wanted to avoid future wars. Some leaders thought that having their countries work together would help.

In 1952 six countriesFrance, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourgformed the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC brought together the countries coal and steel businesses. It was a success.

The ECSC countries then looked for other ways to cooperate. In 1958 they set up the European Atomic Energy Community (also called Euratom) to produce nuclear power together. They also formed the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC worked to get rid of taxes and rules that limited trade in Europe.

The ECSC, Euratom, and the EEC merged in 1967 to form the European Communities (EC). More countries joined the EC in the 1970s and 1980s. The EC was so successful in economic matters that its members started working together in other ways as well. In 1991 the members agreed to form the European Union. The EU was officially created in 1993. The EU added more members in the years that followed.

The EU currency, or form of money, is called the euro. It was introduced in 1999. Most member countries switched from their own currencies to the euro.

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European Union - Kids | Britannica Kids | Homework Help

EU's Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier (C) addresses the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs next to its German chairman at the European Parliament David McAllister in Brussels, April 2, 2019. Getty

The European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Tuesday that Britain's exit from the EU without a deal was becoming "day after day more likely." He issued the warning the morning after the U.K. Parliament again rejected alternatives to Prime Minister Theresa May's unpopular divorce deal.

Despite the downbeat assessment, Barnier said that "we can still hope to avoid it" through intensive work in London ahead of an April 10 summit. A no-deal Brexit could come as soon two days after that.

He urged the feuding lawmakers in London to back the plan that May spent more than two years negotiating with the EU, calling it the only hope.

"If the U.K. still wants to leave the EU in an orderly manner, this agreement, this treaty is and will be the only one," he said Tuesday in Brussels.

Despite the difficulties of a chaotic exit, "the EU will be able to manage," Barnier said, although he warned that "not everything will be smooth."

Exit without a deal would affect trade and travel overnight, with new checks on borders and new regulations on dealings between Britain and the 27 remaining EU nations. While the exact ramifications of an unprecedented EU withdrawal remain unclear, many -- including the U.K. government's own central bank -- have warned that the impact on the British economy could be dire.

A long list of global corporations have already announced plans to relocate their European headquarters from London to other cities in the EU over Brexit, and others have already shifted some personnel and put contingency plans in place to move more out of the Britain.

May was embarking on a marathon session with her Cabinet on Tuesday to try and find a way to avert a no-deal exit from the Union. Cabinet members arrived for a meeting expected to last five hours amid calls for compromise to prevent the potentially devastating crash out.

The government has been pushing for a fourth vote on May's deal, with Education Secretary Damian Hinds saying the agreement already represents a compromise between all sides in the Brexit debate.

Hinds told CBS News partner network BBC News that the deal was "a good balance, and I hope colleagues can get behind it."

While there was no majority in favor of any of the four options voted on Monday night, the votes did reveal a preference among lawmakers for a softer form of Brexit but no clear way to make that happen.

The narrowest defeat 276 votes to 273 was for a plan to keep Britain in a customs union with the EU, guaranteeing smooth and tariff-free trade in goods. A motion that went further, calling for Britain to stay in the EU's borderless single market for both goods and services, was defeated 282-261.

The United Kingdom helped to create the European Union more than six decades ago, and officially joined the tightly-knit common economic bloc more than four decades ago. Brexit, or the British exit, is the term used to describe the British public's decision to bail out of that union in a 2016 public referendum, and the ensuing process of doing so.

There are a few basic principles that bind the 28 (probably soon 27) member states, which basically state that goods and people must be permitted to flow freely across each other's borders. In exchange, each individual member state benefits from the collective bargaining power of the Union in the global economy -- a huge advantage as, collectively, the EU represents the world's second biggest economy after the U.S.

Another benefit is the standardization of regulations across Europe. That means if you buy medicine or food, for instance, in any of the members states, you can be relatively confident that it will be up to the same safety standards.

But all the bureaucracy and rules and regulations that come with such a partnership have their downsides. Some sovereignty is, by default, ceded by members states to the larger bloc. For instance, all nations are subject to collective human rights and trade laws, which are arbitrated by European courts. Pro-Brexit Brits, both in public and Parliament, believe too much independence has been given up to the EU -- particularly where it concerns border controls and immigration -- and they want it back.

Taking it back, it can be said almost unequivocally, has not proven to be nearly as simple or as financially beneficial as it was suggested it would be by the people who led the charge for Brexit in the first place.

Most polls now show that if a new referendum was held today, a slim majority would vote against leaving the European Union. But holding a new public vote -- which the pro-Brexit camp insists would be undemocratic -- is a political hot potato that still has too little support in Parliament. And the window, as Barnier made clear on Tuesday, is closing fast.

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The European Union's parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban many single-use plastic items, part of an effort to keep pollution and waste out of waterways. The European Parliament backed the ban in a 560-35 final vote on Wednesday. EU member states have given their support but need to vote on the measure for it to go into effect.

The ban would affect a range of plastic products for which reasonable alternatives exist, from straws to earbuds, starting in 2021. Disposable utensils would be allowed, but the measure calls for them to be made of sustainable materials when possible.

The approved legislation also sets a goal of having plastic bottles 90 percent recycled by 2025 and to cut in half the litter from 10 items that turn up in oceans most often. The EU estimated the changes will cost the bloc's economy 259 million euros to 695 million euros a year ($291 million to $781 million).

The proposals "will help us move on from single-use plastics and toward less consumption, the multiple use of better-designed products, more innovation and a cleaner environment. The next step is to move away from our waste-based culture," said Margrete Auken, an EU lawmaker for the Greens/EFA group.

The European Parliament has said plastics production is 20 times higher now than during the 1960s. Most of that plastic ends up in the ocean, with less than one-tenth being recycled. China last year cracked down on importing waste from the EU and U.S, a move that helped spur the EU plastics ban.

The U.S. state of Hawaii is considering a similar ban on single-use plastics.

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European Union's ban on single-use plastics moves closer ...