AT LAST! BRITAIN BREAKS BREXIT DEADLOCK
DAVID Davis raised hopes of a breakthrough in the push for Brexit yesterday by insisting negotiators have made “decisive steps forward” in talks about Britain’s future.
After the latest round of discussions in Brussels, the Brexit Secretary gave his most upbeat assessment yet of the chances of agreeing a trade deal with the EU.
And he insisted that “important progress” had been made as a result of the detailed Brexit plan put forward by Theresa May in her recent speech in Florence.
“We have made important progress and capitalised on the momentum created by the Prime Minister’s speech,” he said.
“We’re working quickly through a number of complex issues but there remain some points where further discussion and pragmatism will be required to reach an agreement.”
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier was still digging in, however, demanding a larger divorce payment than the £18billion Britain has offered to cover the country’s two-year transition to full independence after formally leaving the EU in March 2019.
“We’ve had a constructive week but we are not there yet in terms of sufficient progress. Further work is needed in the coming weeks and months,” Mr Barnier said.
He claimed that Brussels’ demands for a continuing role for the EU’s Court of Justice remained a “stumbling block”.
And he said a solution was also needed on the border with Ireland which fully respected the requirements of the EU single market and the Good Friday Agreement.
Yet officials noted that the frosty atmosphere that has surrounded previous rounds of talks appeared to have thawed.
Last night the Prime Minister sought to inject further momentum into the negotiations by making a direct offer to EU leaders of expert support in fighting cyber threats as part of an “unconditional” commitment to European security.
At a summit of EU leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in Estonia, Mrs May insisted that Britain’s exit from the EU would not affect the UK’s role in standing up to Russia and other threats to European peace and stability.
“From terrorism to cyber crime, illegal migration to Russian aggression, the threats we face as Europeans are increasing in their scale and complexity,” she said.
“Now more than ever it is in all our interests to confront them together. With the largest defence budget in Europe, a far-reaching diplomatic network, world-class security, intelligence and law enforcement, and our position at the heart of Nato, the UK’s role has never been more vital.
“As we prepare for Brexit, I want to build a bold new security partnership with the EU.
“We will continue to work with our Nato allies, our European neighbours and the EU to support a future partnership of unprecedented breadth and depth, that will guarantee the security of the continent for generations to come.”
In a separate speech at the Bank of England yesterday, Mrs May mounted a strong defence of free market economics. She said capitalism was “the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created”. And in a dig at Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn, she described it as not just the best but the only sustainable way of raising living standards for ordinary working people.