Brexit: EU Repeats UK Position is Still Vague

No matter how many times or how many ways the EU team put it, the Brits don’t appear to listen.

As the third round of Brexit negotiations take place in Brussels this week, the Europeans continue to demand more details and clear negotiating positions from the British. First it was sharp words from the European chief negotiator Michel Barnier; now it’s the turn of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Barnier showed the exasperation of the Europeans at the start of this week’s talks by undiplomatically urging the British team to “start negotiating seriously”. Juncker (left) then blasted Britain’s failure to answer what he called the “huge numbers of questions” still hanging over its Brexit plans. He stood by the bloc’s refusal to discuss the future free trade deal that London desperately wants before first reaching agreement on the “separation” terms for “the divorce”.

Juncker scoffed at a raft of British negotiating papers published over the summer which Prime Minister Theresa May’s government said had shown that Westminster was responding seriously to the detailed proposals agreed by the other 27 EU states.

David Davis, the British Brexit Secretary, had begun this week’s talks by asking Brussels to show “flexibility” and “imagination” about the structure of the Brexit negotiations so that trade issues could be quickly put on the table but the answer from both Juncker and Barnier was a flat “non”.

“I would like to be clear that I did read with the requisite attention all the papers produced by Her Majesty’s government; I find none of them truly satisfactory,” Juncker told EU envoys gathered in Brussels for an annual conference. “So there are huge numbers of questions that need to be settled.”

These included issues of rights for EU citizens in Britain and Britons in Europe after Brexit and the EU-UK border that will stretch across the island of Ireland, he said.

“We need to be crystal clear that we will begin no negotiations on the new economic and trade relationship between the UK and the EU before all these questions are resolved … that is the divorce between the EU and the UK,” Juncker said. “We cannot mix these issues up.” Barnier had no choice on the matter, Juncker said, because he had firm instructions from the other 27 governments about the phasing of the Brexit negotiations, even if he accepted that some issues could not be fully settled without knowing how trade would work.

“First of all we settle the past before we look forward to the future,” Juncker insisted.

Time slipping away

Antonio Tajani, the head of the European Parliament joined Juncker in piling pressure on David (left) and his negotiating team. “The British government must come forward with clear positions in order for talks to advance,” he warned in a statement.

London is either not listening or it is ignoring the European’s position, which has remained unwavering. Barnier warned at the start of the four days of talks that precious time was slipping away, saying that “to be honest, I am concerned.”

“Time passes quickly.” Icily, he expressed frustration at the continuing “ambiguity” in Britain’s positions, which critics of the British Government say betrays a lack of strong leadership or a clear plan for handling the Brexit negotiations.

Barnier said that for one thing he wanted Theresa May’s Government to give much more detail about its position on the divorce bill that Britain must pay to settle its financial commitments to the EU.

The European Council’s guidelines are clear about what is expected on separation, on any transition period and on conditions for the future relationship, he said. On the other hand the UK is seen to be sticking to an evasive position that was perhaps best defined by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson last October when he said that “our policy is having our cake and eating it.”

Some European leaders have since accused Britain of “not only wanting the cake, but choosing it, when it can be eaten and how big their slice will be.”

 

by Bob Graham

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