Something has to give on the British side, says Barnier
MICHEL Barnier yesterday insisted that “something has to give” on the British side of the Brexit negotiations if the deadlock is to be broken.
The EU’s chief negotiator, who held talks with EU Exit Secretary Stephen Barclay in Brussels last night, warned that the bloc plans to continue resisting the UK call for a revamped departure deal.
“We’re waiting for clarity and movement from the UK,” the French diplomat claimed ahead of their meeting.
“Something has to give on the British side,” he added.
He also risked infuriating Brexit campaigners by welcoming a letter from Jeremy Corbyn to Theresa May urging her to drop her plan for withdrawing the UK from the EU’s customs union.
“I found Corbyn’s letter interesting in tone and in content,” he said.
In a statement to MPs today, Mrs May is expected to reaffirm her plan for the UK to quit the EU on schedule on March 29 and leave the bloc’s customs union and single market at the end of next year. However, Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader, said: “The backstop remains the central problem and it must be dealt with.
“The EU cannot continue to hark back to a proposed deal which was comprehensively rejected by the Commons. “If the political will is there then an agreement can be achieved.
“The alternative is to cling to an unacceptable backstop which actually increases the chances of an outcome it was designed to prevent.” Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer yesterday accused the Prime Minister of “running down the clock” in the run up to the exit date. He said: “If she’s is trying to run the clock down Parliament has to step in with a hard stop to say we are not going to accept that.”