How
the Brexit divorce will play out
The
UK is excluded from the dinner after this week’s summit, and that’s
just the start.
By TOM MCTAGUE AND
JACOPO BARIGAZZI 12/15/16, 1:00 AM CET
BRUSSELS — The
marriage has broken down. Now for the divorce proceedings.
At the European
Council Thursday, Britain and the other 27 EU member countries will
start to put the fights and angry recriminations of June’s Brexit
referendum to one side and finally begin the formal stages of
separation.
Over dinner, the
Continent’s leaders will meet without Theresa May to begin building
their case against the unfaithful, departing partner.
In the statement to
be published after the dinner Thursday night, the EU 27 will announce
plans for an EU Council — probably an extraordinary one after the
March summit — within weeks of Britain formally triggering Article
50 early next year, diplomatic sources told POLITICO.
The move is designed
— in part — to head off complaints about member countries being
sidelined from the negotiations with Britain.
At the summit next
year, the European Commission will be confirmed as the bloc’s lead
negotiator — the nightmare federalist divorce lawyer tasked with
getting the best deal for EU capitals who are fearful of being picked
off and weakened as a bloc by the U.K.
According to two
senior sources in Brussels, the EU 27 will ram home their message of
unity in the statement at the end of this week’s dinner. According
to diplomats who spoke to POLITICO, the message will be simple: We
are ready, it’s time you got on with it.
In Westminster,
May’s government is sanguine about the EU 27’s public show of
unity. A Downing Street source said the U.K. government welcomed the
talks, despite being excluded. The source said the prime minister did
not object to being sidelined because the meeting showed the other
member countries were finally “facing up to the reality of Britain
leaving the European Union.”
The source said the
meeting was to allow the EU 27 to “organize” themselves ahead of
Article 50 being triggered early next year, which was fine by Downing
Street.
May — who
campaigned for Remain, but has taken up the Brexit cause with the
enthusiasm of a convert — does not want to make a fuss about the
U.K.’s exclusion from Thursday’s talks.
Despite her tough
rhetoric on immigration and the European Court of Justice, the U.K.
prime minister is determined to maintain good diplomatic relations
ahead of the divorce proceedings.
In the discussions
between the 28, the British prime minister will play a constructive
role — offering more help to Greece to cope with its migration
problems, support for Berlin over the EU-Turkey migration deal and
continuing EU foreign policy unity against Russia and Syria amid
widespread concern over the incoming Donald Trump administration in
the U.S.
May will also meet
European Parliament President Martin Schulz in a deliberate move to
reassure MEPs that the U.K. government takes their role seriously.
In a letter to
European Council President Donald Tusk released last night, Schulz
attacked the way the statement from the 27 heads of state or
government relegated the European Parliament “to a secondary
position in the Brexit negotiation process.”
The European
Parliament will have no formal role in the negotiations — set to be
conducted between the U.K.’s Brexit Secretary David Davis and the
Commission’s Michel Barnier — but can veto any deal.
Theresa May arrives
for a Council meeting in October | Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty
Images
Theresa May arrives
for a Council meeting in October | Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty
Images
In his letter Schulz
warned Tusk that if the Parliament could “draw up its own detailed
arrangements” with Barnier and the U.K. government and was prepared
to block a deal it did not like — forcing the U.K. to crash out of
the EU without an agreement. “This would be the very hardest of
Brexits and to the detriment of everybody,” he warned.
Thursday’s EU
summit comes amid growing clarity over the U.K.’s Brexit plan. On
Monday, Chancellor Philip Hammond called for a transition period to
give the U.K. a “smooth” landing out of the EU.
On Wednesday, Davis
publicly admitted a transition might be necessary.
Appearing in front
of a committee of MPs, Davis said he was open to a transition period,
but only to allow the “implementation” of any agreement the U.K.
had reached with Brussels within the two-year exit period.
“We are aiming to
get ourselves in a position where we can negotiate within the Article
50 process,” he said. “Article 50 was written to allow departures
from the European Union, that’s its purpose. Plainly the authors of
it thought it was time enough to do the job. And so do I.”
But he added that an
“implementation phase” could be acceptable “if it is necessary
and only if it is necessary.”
“The British
people want this done with some degree of expedition, they want it
done properly and soon and that is what we are trying to do.”
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