EU is even ready for Brexit failure

ENVOYS OF 27 STATES MAP OUT TRADE TIES Preparing for exit, while waiting for improved divorce offer from Britain.

European Union (EU) nations yesterday began mapping out their trade ties with Britain after Brexit – but also prepared for a failure in the negotiations, come December, sources in Brussels said.

Brussels envoys from the 27 EU states that will remain in the bloc after Britain leaves in 2019 met for the first time since EU leaders last week denied Prime Minister Theresa May’s request to start talks on post-Brexit trade arrangements.

But, to encourage London to first improve its divorce offer, the 27 EU leaders promised to start internal preparations on a transition period and the bloc’s future ties with Britain.

That would allow them to quickly sit down to such talks with London, should enough progress on the exit part be made by the time of an EU summit in December.

“We will prepare our thinking on the transition, the future relationship,” said one EU official.

But another said yesterday’s meeting also agreed to look into what to do if things do not go according to plan.

That comes after the EU leaders’ chair, Donald Tusk, said earlier the 27 would reconsider their Brexit strategy if London failed to improve its divorce offer significantly by the end of the year.

Settling Britain’s exit bill is the most contentious issue.

But the EU also wants to see more assurances on expatriate rights and the post-Brexit Irish border before it would assess enough progress was made in the first stage of talks with London.

Britain’s Brexit minister, David Davis, said yesterday London wanted to have an outline agreement in place by March. –