Brexit may fall apart as talks wilt

BELGIUM: The European Council president warned yesterday that Brexit negotiations could collapse before a deadline for agreement by a European Union summit in December.

Donald Tusk said that talks faced their greatest challenge over the issue of trade and the possibility of a ‘‘no-deal’’ outcome, but he added he still held out hope there would be ‘‘no Brexit’’.

Tusk told Members of the European Parliament at the EU assembly’s meeting in Strasbourg: ‘‘Ahead of us is still the toughest stress test. If we fail it, the negotiations will end in our defeat. We must keep our unity regardless of the direction of the talks. The EU will be able to rise to every scenario as long as we are not divided. It is in fact up to London how this will end – with a good deal, no deal or no Brexit.’’

Tusk told a summit of EU leaders last week that without a deal on withdrawal questions by December – primarily the money that Britain owes Brussels – negotiations would be in trouble.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said Conservative Eurosceptics threatening a no-deal option as a negotiating stance were putting the talks in jeopardy.

‘‘I would like to say the commission is not negotiating in a hostile mood,’’ he said. ‘‘We want a deal. Those who don’t want a deal, the no-dealers, they have no friends in the commission. We want a fair deal with Britain and we will have a fair deal with Britain. No deal is not our working assumption.’’

Manfred Weber, German MEP close a to senior Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, contradicted Juncker, backing an EU no-deal plan or scenario in talks. ‘‘We are preparing a scenario for leaving without an agreement, I think that’s a good step.’’

Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead Brexit negotiator, has predicted that negotiations on a future trade agreement between Britain and Europe would take longer than the two-year transition period suggested by British Prime Minister Theresa May.

He said Britain could only expect a trade deal such as the one between the EU and Canada, which took seven years to negotiate, but warned that a transition period could last only until the end of 2020, when current Brussels spending plans end.

‘‘To my mind, it makes sense that [a transition period] covers the financial period, so until 2020. It would leave us more time to prepare for the future relationship,’’ he said.

‘‘From the moment the UK told us that it wants out of the single market and the customs union, we will have to work on a model that is closer to the agreement signed with Canada.’’

Barnier revealed: ‘‘My team is already starting work on a draft of the treaty for the exit of the UK from the EU.’’

In a reverse of his previous position, he admitted that British negotiators were right to go through EU liabilities worth €238.8 billion item by item to tie down the detail of May’s pledge to ‘‘honour commitments’’.

He said: ‘‘We must now take the time to know, line by line, what the British mean when they talk about their commitments.’’ –The Times