Theresa May has taken a high stakes gamble by once again refusing to discuss the details of Britain’s EU “divorce bill” during Brexit negotiations this week in the hope that a summit of EU leaders next week will throw her a lifeline.
Banks and other finance firms have warned that without firm progress in trade negotiations by Christmas they will be forced to “push the button” to move thousands of jobs overseas.
The poor progress in this week’s fifth round of talks means the complex trade negotiations are unlikely even to start until at least December, with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier (above with Britain’s David Davis) declaring there was a “very disturbing state of deadlock” on the preliminary issue of the divorce bill.
The EU’s long-standing insistence that there must first be progress on the divorce bill issue, Ireland and the rights of expat citizens means that the summit of 27 EU heads of government on October 19-20 will not authorise the talks to move on to trade issues.
But May and her Brexit Secretary Davis have not budged on the divorce bill issue and are hoping that the summit will at least authorise the beginning of talks on a transition deal for the two years after Brexit, something that Davis pleaded for yesterday and Barnier hinted he would back.
The pound fell when the deadlock became apparent and Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry, said it was of “paramount importance to firms” that full-blown trade talks begin before Christmas, adding that the failure to make progress on a divorce bill was “deeply concerning to many businesses in the UK and the rest of Europe”.
Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, said “the Prime Minister’s high risk strategy of flirting with a ‘no deal Brexit’ has failed”. “Negotiations are still in deadlock, and workers and businesses have been put at greater risk from a Brexit cliff edge,” she said.
Unimaginable Risk
Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director (left), warned that the risks of not reaching a deal were unimaginable. “When I think of the airline industries, the landing rights in various European countries … There is so much that has been brought together between the continent and the UK that it requires a very specific approach that will reduce the uncertainty that is damaging potential,” she said.
A clearly frustrated Barnier said that there had not actually been any negotiations on the divorce bill this week because Britain was still refusing to explain what it would pay. ““This week the UK repeated that it was still not ready to spell out these commitments,he said. ”On this question we have reached a state of deadlock which is very disturbing.”
Some European officials hope that bringing forward talks on a transition deal might be a way to break the impasse over how much Britain should pay for its past financial commitments to the EU, as British negotiators have insisted that it is not possible to discuss the detail of the divorce bill until they know what sort of transition there will be after Brexit.
It is already seven and a half months since Theresa May formally triggered a two-year countdown to Brexit and business leaders say they need to know the nation’s new trading arrangements long before the March 2019 Brexit day.
Barnier and Davis said there was progress this week on the Ireland border and the rights of the 3.5 million EU citizens living in the UK and the 1 million Britons living in the EU. But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the impasse on the divorce bill and the start of trade talks was “quite shocking.”
“Deadlock at Every Stage”
“We’re now 15 months on since the referendum and the Government seems to have reached deadlock at every stage,” he said, urging Davis to go back to Brussels next week for “emergency” talks with the EU. Corbyn said that if a second Brexit referendum was held he would vote Remain, as he did in last year’s vote but he still supports going ahead with Brexit rather than holding another referendum.
“There isn’t going to be another referendum, so it’s a hypothetical question but yes, I voted Remain because I thought the best option was to remain. I haven’t changed my mind on that. But we accept the result of the referendum therefore we want to make sure we obtain tariff-free access to the European markets and protection of all the rights and membership of agencies we have achieved through the EU membership.”
John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, earlier disagreed with the suggestion that MPs are obliged to accept and implement the result of the referendum, as it was not binding on Parliament.
It was only an “opinion, rather than a constitutional fact” to say that MPs had to go through with Brexit, he said. “There will be some members of Parliament who say: ‘I want to be able at the end of all this if I’m not satisfied, to say no, to try to persuade other members of parliament to say no, and to hope that no might delay Brexit or prevent Brexit.’ Do they have a right to argue that point of view? They absolutely do.”
by Peter Wilson
The post Brexit: UK Refuses to Discuss Divorce Bill appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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