EU
set for ‘dirty Brexit’
Senior
EU diplomats told to prepare for no agreement with the UK after two
years of talks.
By TOM MCTAGUE
10/21/16, 6:10 PM CET Updated 10/21/16, 7:07 PM CET
Forget hard Brexit
or soft Brexit. European officials have been instructed to prepare
for a “dirty Brexit.”
Theresa May had
hoped to use her first European Council meeting to prepare for smooth
divorce negotiations early next year. But EU leaders were not in a
cooperative mood.
The U.K. prime
minister’s confrontational Conservative Party conference speech
hung in the air for much of the summit. Promising to bring in
immigration checks for EU workers, among other things, had poisoned
the atmosphere.
Beforehand, the
prime minister’s aides were happy that she’d been given a slot
over dinner to address her partners, claiming it as a minor victory.
In the end, European
Council President Donald Tusk did not call the prime minister to make
her “information point” (EU-speak for an update) until just
before 1 a.m. — some five hours after they had all sat down for
dinner.
The response was
cold and united. They listened in silence and did not respond — the
diplomatic equivalent of hanging up the phone.
“The basic
principles and rules, namely the single market and the indivisibility
of the four freedoms, will remain our firm stance” — Donald Tusk
British officials
insist the reception was perfectly cordial, pointing out there were
no responses to Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, after he gave
his own “information point” earlier on Ukraine.
At just after 1:30
a.m., Tusk appeared, bleary eyed, to explain the silence. “There
will be no negotiations until Article 50 is triggered by the U.K., so
we did not discuss Brexit,” he said.
Yet he couldn’t
resist setting out the EU’s equally hardline position — no
restrictions on free movement of people as well as goods, capital and
services within Europe’s single market. “The basic principles and
rules, namely the single market and the indivisibility of the four
freedoms, will remain our firm stance.”
In other words: say
what you like about taking back control of immigration, May, we hold
all the cards in this negotiation.
Behind the scenes,
EU officials have been given equally firm instructions.
Senior diplomats
have been told to prepare for the possibility of no agreement being
struck at all after two years of talks, two EU diplomats told
POLITICO. On Thursday, David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, said that
without a deal, the British economy could fall off a “cliff edge.”
The diplomats said
Didier Seeuws, the Belgian official appointed by Tusk to head his
Brexit task force, had been told to prepare for all scenarios.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, one senior diplomat said:
“Seeuws’ unit is also working on the scenario of a ‘dirty
Brexit.’”
Both diplomats said
British officials had sought to assure their EU partners that despite
the tough talk at the Tory conference, all issues were still on the
table and no decisions had been taken on Britain’s negotiating
position.
However, it seemed
clear to European governments that by insisting on immigration
control and ruling out the continued jurisdiction of the European
Court of Justice after Britain leaves the EU, May had boxed herself
into a “hard Brexit.”
Michel Barnier, the
former French foreign minister appointed to head the exit
negotiations on behalf of the European Commission, has made clear on
his first visits to national capitals that the talks will cover only
a narrow four-point agenda of separation issues and, by implication,
not the broader question of the future EU-U.K. relationship.
Barnier had said his
mandate would cover, first, what he called “the check” — the
amount Britain will have to pay to cover its share of continuing EU
program payments and other liabilities such as EU staff pensions;
second, the status and rights of EU nationals in Britain and British
nationals in the EU; third, the administrative disengagement,
including the future of EU agencies based in Britain; and fourth,
“special situations” such as arrangements for Northern Ireland
and Gibraltar.
“I recognize the
scale of the challenge ahead. I am sure there will be difficult
moments. It will require some give and take — Theresa May
Conspicuously absent
from that list are issues which the British see as central to their
interests such as access to the EU’s single market and so-called
passporting rights for U.K.-based banks and financial services firms,
as well as any transition arrangements before tariffs would apply.
At her post-summit
press conference Friday afternoon, May struck a firm but consensual
tone. A deal would be struck if EU leaders acted in good spirit, she
said.
“I want a mature,
cooperative relationship with our European partners. I recognize the
scale of the challenge ahead. I am sure there will be difficult
moments. It will require some give and take,” she said.
“But I firmly
believe that if we approach this in a constructive spirit, as I am,
then we can have a smooth departure and build a powerful new
relationship that works for both the U.K. and for the countries of
the EU, looking for opportunities, not problems.”
She added: “That
is in British interests and it is in the interests of all of our
European partners, too.”
But May could not
resist playing to the gallery back home, throwing some red meat to
the British press looking for evidence of diplomatic strife.
The prime minister
said she had “not been backward in coming forward” speaking up
for the U.K. during the two-day summit.
She also took a dig
at Barnier over a suggestion that the Brexit negotiations would be
conducted in French. “We are going to conduct these negotiations in
the way that means we are going to get the best deal for Britain,”
she said, guaranteeing excitable headlines in the U.K. press
Saturday. Barnier later clarified that he was not seeking to impose
French as the sole lingua franca.
Whatever the warm
words or icy silences, in Brussels this week the two sides took their
positions: Britain in one corner – everybody else in the other.
The risk of a “dirty
Brexit” is rising.
Paul Taylor
contributed to this report.
Authors:
Tom McTague
.webp)
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