National Post (National Edition)
Go-slow approach may be answer as Brexit hopes grow
BRUSSELS • The U.K. and the European Union are inching towards a plan that could help unblock Brexit negotiations and clear the path to a deal, raising hopes of progress after months of stalemate.
While the EU summit in Brussels fell far short of the breakthrough it was long touted to be, a glimmer of hope emerged from the gloom that has descended on the process in recent weeks.
The idea that’s breathing new life into the negotiations is an old one: take more time to do the deal.
Both sides now think there’s merit in keeping the U.K. inside the EU’S full membership rules for longer after it formally leaves, with an option to extend the 21-month transition period that’s due to end in December 2020.
That would give negotiators more time to resolve the biggest obstacle that’s blocking the road to a deal: how to avoid customs checks at the border between the U.K. and Ireland.
“There will be more difficult moments as we enter the final stages of the talks,” Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters in Brussels. “But I am convinced that we will secure a good deal that is in the interests of the U.K. and of the European Union.”
The move follows a bad month for Brexit talks. In September, May was humiliated when leaders rejected her plans at a summit in Salzburg, Austria, which she’d hoped would be a chance to persuade them to engage constructively.
And on Oct. 14, talks hit a roadblock when May’s Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab travelled to meet EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to tell him he could not accept the Irish border solutions proposed by Brussels. That impasse dealt a fatal blow to the long-term goal of using this week’s leaders’ summit to seal the terms of the divorce.
When the leaders gathered in the Belgian capital on Wednesday, they were determined to avoid another diplomatic catastrophe like Salzburg. May’s 15-minute address to her fellow leaders before dinner didn’t impress, and left some of them confused and frustrated. But she showed a willingness to move her position, and the EU has too, according to officials on both sides.
May signalled that she was open to extending the transition period to help solve the problem of the Irish border. In return, the EU has agreed to engage with May’s proposal for a so called backstop guarantee to avoid customs checks on the U.k.-ireland border — which would involve keeping the whole U.K. inside the EU’S customs regime.
According to an EU official, the bloc decided that time is running out and they can’t afford any more breakdowns. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the leaders pledged on Wednesday to do “everything to find a solution.”
May said her proposal was an attempt to solve the issue of the Irish border, which has stumped negotiators for more than a year.
“What has now emerged is the idea that an option to extend the implementation period could be a further solution to this issue of the backstop in Porthern Ireland,” May said. “We are not standing here proposing an extension to the implementation period. What we are doing is working to ensure we have a solution to the backstop issue in Porthern Ireland, which is currently a blockage to completing the deal.”
There were other signs of progress, too. If the summit had gone badly, EU officials were weighing the idea of calling a special summit in Povember to prepare themselves for a chaotic divorce without a Brexit deal. To the relief of May’s team, that didn’t happen.
Speaking to reporters at the end of the summit, other leaders voiced their optimism about the prospects for progress, echoing May’s confidence. “I think that where there’s a will, there should be a way,” Merkel said. “I think there is a way.”
Despite the progress in Brussels, May still faces major hurdles in London, where she will eventually need any deal she strikes with the EU to be ratified by the U.K. Parliament.
Veteran Brexit campaigner John Redwood, who’s a member of May’s Conservative party, said extending the transition period would be “completely nuts.” He added: “She won’t get it through. We’re against it. It’s not Brexit.”