Brexit: PM’s Speech Called ‘Brexit in Name Only’

Want to judge anything Brexit related, just look at what Nigel Farage’s reaction. Quick out of the blocks to say May’s speech is pushing a ‘Brexit in name only.’

The headline-grabbing element of Theresa May’s widely-watched speech in Florence about Brexit was the announcement that she wanted to delay Britain’s real departure from the EU by two years to 2021 to avoid a chaotic “cliff-edge” Brexit. But the Prime Minister’s speech on Friday left so many questions unanswered that Brexit negotiations will resume in Brussels on Monday amid growing doubts that they will make enough progress to move onto the long-term trade negotiations that Britain desperately wants to get underway.

The talks will be dominated by EU officials asking British negotiators to explain May’s speech and the many crucial details that she failed to address.

The negotiations were delayed for a week to allow May to give her speech, which was billed as a breakthrough moment to speed up the stalled Brexit talks but the main response it provoked from leaders across Europe was a confused “Huh?”

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator said May did not clarify the sort of long-term trading relationship Britain wanted with Europe, nor explain how the UK would handle Northern Ireland’s border with the EU or protect the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and she failed to put a full-figure on its financial obligations to the EU .

“We look forward to the UK’s negotiators explaining the concrete implications of Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech,” he said.

“More Concerned Now”

Manfred Weber, a German who chairs the largest group in the European Parliament, the centre-right European People’s Party, expressed disappointment at May’s speech, which appeared to be aimed more at calming divisions in her own Cabinet than in making progress with Europe.

“In substance PM May is bringing no more clarity to London’s positions. I am even more concerned now,” he tweeted. “The clock is ticking and time is running faster than the government believes in London.”

The European Parliament has the power to veto any eventual Brexit divorce deal and new trading relationship between the EU and Brussels.

Chances are shrinking that the Brexit negotiations will achieve enough next week on threshold issues such as the Irish border and Britain’s “divorce payment” to convince a European Council summit of EU government leaders in October to authorise the start of long-term trade talks sought by Britain.

Konrad Szymanski, Poland’s EU affairs minister, said May’s speech left enormous issues still to be thrashed out in the negotiations. “Only progress made at the negotiating table will allow the European Council to conclude that the sufficient progress has been made.”

The good news for UK businesses and others worried about a sudden and disruptive UK exit from the EU was that May announced that she hoped to see a transition period of up to two years after Brexit, which is scheduled for March 2019, during which the status quo of EU membership would largely be maintained.

No Clear Details

The good news for those who want to see an eventual “hard Brexit” in which the UK moves well away from being bound by EU trade rules was that May ruled out the “softest” form of eventual Brexit, the “Norway option” in which the UK would pay for continued access to the EU single market.

That brought a triumphant response from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, an ardent pro-Brexit campaigner,   who tweeted that her speech “rightly disposes of the Norway option! Forwards!”

But while the Prime Minister ruled out continued membership of the EU single market and customs union or an arms-length free trade agreement like that between the EU and Canada, she gave few if any concrete details about the sort of trading and political relationship that she does want to see.

“We heard a lot about what the UK doesn’t want,” said Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit co-ordinator. “We hope to hear from them soon how they see the ‘deep and special partnership’ with the EU.”

Even May’s offer to continue paying Britain’s EU dues during a two-year transition period, which it is estimated would cost about 20bn Euros, did not address the bigger financial issue of the EU’s demand that Britain also pay for long-term commitments such as pensions for EU employees and debts undertaken while Britain was an EU member.

 

by Peter Wilson

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