Another day, another insult from Brussels
Top negotiator claims Britons regret Brexit
THE European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator claimed last night that Britons no longer want to leave the European Union and mocked Theresa May’s Cabinet of ‘backstabbers’.
After negotiations in Brussels appeared to be finally moving forward yesterday morning, Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt stoked tensions again by delivering an inflammatory speech arguing that many Brexit voters now regret their decision. Following months of stalemate, Euro- pean Commission chief negotiator Michel Barnier had praised the Prime Minister’s speech in Florence last week for creating a ‘new dynamic’ at the negotiating table.
But Mr Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, used an address at the London School of Economics to reopen hostilities by taking swipes at Mrs May and the divisions in her Cabinet.
He said: ‘I presume she chose Florence, because Florentine politics in the 15th century made her feel at home, made her think of her own Conservative Party. You know what I mean, backstabbing, betrayal. All those noble families fighting for power.’
His criticism follows Jean-Claude Juncker’s suggestion earlier this month that Brexit Secretary David Davis was lazy and unstable.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has also questioned Mr Davis’s approach, suggesting he did not appear to view the negotiations as a ‘priority’. It came just after Mr Barnier reportedly said he would teach Britain a lesson if it refused to hand over a massive divorce payment.
Yesterday Mr Verhofstadt claimed ‘hundreds of thousands, even millions of British citizens still cherish their European identity and want to keep their European citizenship’. He said they were being dragged out of the EU ‘against their will’. While accepting that politicians have to ‘respect the outcome of the referendum’, he argued there is no longer a majority in the UK who want to leave and even claimed that the 48 per cent of people who voted was ‘a minority you can’t ignore’.
The Belgian, an arch-federalist who wants to see a ‘United States of Europe’, suggested that Britain would lose its influence on the world stage after leaving the EU.
‘The world of tomorrow, is a world of empires,’ he said. ‘And only a united Europe will play a role of significance.’
Mr Verhofstadt said the Brexit decision had ‘opened people’s eyes’ and predictions that other countries would follow have died away. ‘I continue to believe that Brexit is a very negative project,’ he said. ‘A waste of time and energy.’ He claimed that, since Brexit, the EU has ‘ regained popularity’ and people now wanted to reform Europe, ‘ not destroy it’. The Prime Minister has said the UK will honour its commitments under the EU budget to 2020, thought to be around £18billion, so no other EU country will ‘pay more or receive less’ as a result of Brexit. But Mr Verhofstadt said Britain’s financial obligations could run beyond the budget period.
In Brussels, Mr Barnier signalled an end to the deadlock in Brexit talks. He hailed Mrs May for boosting the chances of reaching a deal and, significantly, opened the door to bringing forward talks on the so- called ‘transition period’ requested by the Prime Minister.
‘Theresa May’s speech made it possible to unblock the situation to some extent, and bring a new dynamic to the situation,’ said Mr Barnier. But he added that it could be weeks, maybe even months, ‘before we are able to say there has been sufficient progress’.
Mr Davis, referring to concessions made by both sides, said that ‘decisive steps forward’ were taken during the negotiating round that finished yesterday.
‘Dragged out against their will’