Is May breakthrough on trade deal in jeopardy?
Irish border dispute could throw crunch talks off track
THERESA May’s hopes of a Brexit breakthrough are in jeopardy ahead of crunch talks in Brussels today.
The Prime Minister will travel to Belgium this morning ahead of a lunch with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
She will then hold further talks with EU Council president Donald Tusk, who represents the interests of the remaining 27 member states.
The PM is also expected to telephone Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, whose lastminute threat to veto progress over border issues has thrown the careful choreography of a deal into chaos.
Mrs May had hoped to secure agreement on moving on to trade talks after persuad said ing her cabinet to back an improved divorce payment worth up to £40billion to the EU. In return, she is demanding assurances that Brussels will agree a comprehensive trade deal.
But, despite round-the- clock talks this weekend, key differences remain between the two sides, particularly over the Irish border.
A Government spokesman said today’s meetings were now seen as no more than a ‘staging post’ ahead of a summit of EU leaders next week. The spokesman said there were ‘plenty of discussions still to go’ before a deal is struck.
Ministers are alarmed by the lack of a breakthrough. Some, including the Brexit Secretary David Davis, are warning privately that Mrs May will have to walk
away if there is no agreement at
next week’s EU summit. One source familiar with the talks said: ‘If we don’t make sufficient progress at this stage then the process is over.’ Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday warned Eurosceptic MPs not to limit Mrs May’s room for manoeuvre. ‘The choice we face is not between this Brexit or that Brexit,’ he said. ‘If we don’t back Theresa May we will have no Brexit, and she is doing an unbelievably challenging job amazingly well.’ Mr Hunt’s intervention came as 30 Eurosceptics set down seven ‘red lines’ over Brexit. The Leave Means Leave group Mrs May should not make any payment to Brussels unless she received clear pledges in return, including a free trade deal and agreement that the UK would not have to accept any new EU regulations or European court rulings during a two-year transition period.
Signatories of the letter include former cabinet ministers Lord Lawson, John Redwood and Owen Paterson. They urge Mrs May to abandon the talks completely and go for a no-deal Brexit if Brussels refuses to agree terms next week.
Today’s talks are designed to determine whether ‘ sufficient progress’ has been made on three key issues to persuade the EU to move on to trade talks.
The issues at the centre of the row are the size of the divorce bill, the rights of EU citizens living in the UK and the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. The divorce bill is now seen as the most straightforward issue, with EU sources indicating Brussels is ready to accept Mrs May’s revised offer.
But differences remain on citizens’ rights and Northern Ireland.
The Prime Minister had hoped to offer a ‘compromise’ on citizens’ rights, which would give the European Court of Justice a minor, indirect role. But she has not yet persuaded her cabinet to sign it off.
The deal would allow the UK’s Supreme Court to ask the ECJ for guidance in cases brought by EU citizens where there is no existing case law. EU citizens would lose the right to appeal directly to the ECJ – a key Brussels demand.
Nigel Farage was dragged into the divorce bill row yesterday because his £73,000-a-year MEP’s pension will be part-funded by Britain’s proposed £40billion payment. The UKIP leader rejected calls to give up the money, saying: ‘Why should my family suffer?’
Facebook has backed post-Brexit Britain by opening a London office employing 800 staff. It will be the social networking firm’s biggest software engineering hub outside the US.
Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook vice president for Europe, Middle East and Asia, said it was ‘more committed than ever to the UK’.