Brexit logjam!
Britain's May confronts EU leaders amid crisis
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May faced a Brexit showdown with frustrated EU leaders Wednesday at talks to agree an orderly break-up of an impasse.
This week’s summit in Brussels was billed as a “moment of truth” for negotiations on Britain’s exit from the bloc – but it seems so far the truth is that the two sides just cannot agree.
“I am going to ask Prime Minister May whether she has concrete proposals on how to break the impasse,” EU President Donald Tusk declared.
But May, hemmed in by opponents in her own party and even in her own cabinet, has no such proposals.
“The prime minister set out her position and where she thinks the negotiations are yesterday,” Number 10 spokesman said Tuesday.
Even the choreography of Wednesday’s summit opening emphasized British isolation.
May was to meet one-on-one with Tusk before briefing her 27 European colleagues. But then the rest of the EU leaders were planned to leave to discuss Brexit over dinner without her.
Tusk has made it clear that if May and EU negotiator Michel Barnier do not offer signs of concrete progress toward a draft deal, he will not call a November summit to sign it.
Instead, the whole circus could either be pushed back to December or – more dramatically – the EU could use the November weekend to meet on preparations for a “no-deal” Brexit.
Previously, both sides had agreed that Britain crashing out of the Union on March 29 next year with neither a divorce agreement nor a road map to future ties would be an economic and diplomatic disaster.
But, after Britain’s refusal to accept an indefinite legal “backstop” to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, doubts are mounting.
No optimism
“I think we are quite close to a no-deal,” warned Konrad Szymanski, the Polish minister for European Affairs after a pre-summit meeting with his European counterparts in Luxembourg.
Back in Brussels, a stern Tusk said he had “no grounds for optimism” based on a report Tuesday from Barnier and May’s appearance in parliament on Monday.
The main disagreement between London and Brussels is over how to keep the Irish border open after Brexit, but May is also fighting with her own MPs, who must ultimately approve the final divorce deal.
At a three-hour cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, which included ministers with reservations about her strategy, May said a deal was possible if they all stood together.
“I’m convinced that if we as a government stand together and stand firm, we can achieve this,” she said, according to her spokesman.
Arriving in Luxembourg to brief EU ministers, Barnier said: “We need more time to find a comprehensive agreement.”
Press reports suggested Barnier is ready to add a year to the 21-month transition period planned for after Brexit day on March 29 – but this would not resolve the underlying issue over the Irish backstop.
No deal plans
Addressing MPs in the House of Commons on Monday, May said a deal was “achievable” while sticking to her principles on the Irish border issue.
But a senior European official said the speech had only underscored for Barnier the uphill struggle he faces to get an agreement. To solve the Irish question, Britain has proposed staying aligned to the EU’s customs rules until a wider trade deal can be signed that avoids the need for any frontier checks.
But her own eurosceptic Conservative MPs are demanding this “backstop” arrangement be time-limited, something the EU will not accept.
May said the EU was also insisting on its own “backstop” in case the London proposal did not work, which would see Northern Ireland alone stay aligned to the customs union and single market.
She says this would threaten the integrity of the United Kingdom
– and it is strongly opposed by her Northern Irish allies from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Economists fear “no deal” Brexit would greatly disrupt trade, travel and manufacturers’ supply chains in Europe, push Britain into recession and even have global consequences.
On Tuesday, chairman of the US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell warned that a “disorderly Brexit” would slow the EU economy as a whole and have a knock-on effect on US banks.
Barnier has opened the possibility of extending the one-year transition period in an effort to unblock talks stalled on the thorny issue of the Irish border.
Barnier told European Affairs ministers on Wednesday “that one of the options was to extend the transitional phase by one year (to 2021)” in an attempt to gain more time to negotiate trade deal, EU diplomats told AFP.
The offer was revealed on the day when British Prime Minister Theresa May met her 27 EU counterparts in Brussels to discuss the talks that are in an impasse.