Only ‘miracles’ can move Brexit talks forward, EU tells Britain
TALLINN: Only ‘ miracles’ can move Brexit talks far enough forward to fulfil Britain’s hopes of launching discussions next month on its future ties with the European Union, the head of the European Commission said.
Prime Minister Theresa May has been hoping to use an informal EU meeting in the Estonian capital Tallinn to harness what she describes as renewed goodwill over Brexit to push the talks beyond the terms of the divorce, now just 18 months away.
Britain had aimed to make a breakthrough at a summit in Brussels on Oct 19-20. Two years have been set aside for the Brexit talks and Britain risks crashing out of the 28- state bloc without a deal on future trade terms come March 30, 2019.
But Jean- Claude Juncker, president of the EU executive and long a bogeyman for Britain’s vocally eurosceptic press, said the first stage of talks on the rights of expatriates, the border with EU member Ireland and the financial settlement when Britain leaves had not gone far enough.
“By the end of October, we will not have sufficient progress. At the
By the end of October, we will not have sufficient progress. At the end of this week, I am saying that there will be no sufficient progress from now until October unless miracles will happen. Jean-Claude Juncker, EU president
end of this week, I am saying that there will be no sufficient progress from now until October unless miracles will happen,” Juncker told reporters in Tallinn, a day after his chief negotiator ended the last round of Brexit talks.
His words were echoed by other leaders, with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also saying both sides would need ‘a small miracle’ to move on. Ireland’s Leo Varadkar said it was ‘still very evident that there’s more work to be done’.
Their words will be a blow for May, who wants to move quickly on to discussion of the future trade relationship and a transitional arrangement – part of the deal Britain says is needed before any kind of financial settlement can be agreed.
After three months of talks which have become bogged down in a spat over the divorce bill, the British prime minister tried to reset the tone with a speech a week ago in Florence.
She had hoped to speak directly to EU leaders and reassure them Britain was not picking unnecessary fights, going as far as to make concessions on the future role of the European court and on the Brexit bill.
In Tallinn, May sidestepped questions over whether she was confident of the October deadline. She met German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the summit to speak about Brexit, Iran and North Korea, a British government source said.
In an early morning visit to Estonia’s Tapa military base, where 800 British troops are deployed as part of Nato’s move to defend against a newly assertive Russia, May said Britain was ‘ unconditionally committed’ to protecting Europe after Brexit.
By focusing on defence, May wants to show that Britain has something to offer its European neighbours. She will say she is ready to share British expertise – including through the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – to help EU nations build up their own cybersecurity capability. — AFP