Migration, not Brexit, now tops the EU’s agenda
ment championing tough migration policies.
The German Chancellor can hardly complain that she was not warned about the tide of frustration sweeping Europe over her relaxed approach to border controls. Her refusal to make any concessions on free movement when Mrs May’s predecessor, David Cameron, attempted to negotiate a new deal was a significant factor in the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
Next week’s summit will demonstrate just how weak Mrs Merkel has become. Yet she still remains the most influential figure in the search for a Brexit deal.
Given the divided state of the EU under Mrs Merkel’s beleaguered leadership, many Brexit-backing Tory ministers and MPs want to see a bolder approach from Mrs May in the Brexit negotiations. They sense Britain can exploit the impatience towards European federalism spreading among governments of EU member nations. “The EU is in a mess. We need to be far more ambitious in standing up to them,” one Tory minister told me.
Cabinet ministers say the Prime Minister now has the chance to show her mettle in the negotiations. As the EU Exit Secretary David Davis told me in his interview published in this newspaper today, Mrs May’s victory over the rebels in her own party on her Brexit Bill means her hands will not be tied by Parliament should she need to raise the threat of walking out of the talks without a deal.
Mrs May can expect to see just how weak and divided the EU is when she goes to Brussels. Her visit should raise her spirits to play for a win as the final months of the Brexit negotiations loom.