Stop the insults and start talking, UK tells Europe
DOWNING Street struck back at Brussels yesterday after EU officials accused Theresa May of wanting a ‘fantasy Brexit’.
The EU was accused of threatening European security by insulting the UK instead of focusing on ways to find compromise during negotiations.
It knocked back Britain’s calls for a special agreement on crime-fighting by saying that security risks should have been thought through before the referendum and the Government now had to ‘accept the consequences’.
It prompted the UK’s most senior Brexit official, Olly Robbins, to break his public silence over the talks yesterday. Writing online, he dismissed the EU’s criticism and said Britain’s proposals were ‘calmly and professionally presented’ during talks this week.
The bloc’s refusal to countenance unique Brexit agreements on crime and security has infuriated Mrs May, who has said the closest possible co- operation should be ‘unconditional’. A hardline strategy being driven by the European Commission has also led to a revolt among EU governments who suspect Eurocrats are trying to punish the UK.
Chancellor Philip Hammond yesterday said that a poisonous briefing by a senior EU official after the latest round of Brexit talks ended in acrimony threatened to harm the divorce process.
Speaking in Brussels, he said: ‘ We’re having very constructive discussions – I don’t think that’s a particularly helpful comment. Everybody I’ve engaged with has been very constructive, very keen to find a way to move forward.’
A source close to the UK negotiating team said: ‘The claim we aren’t providing enough detail is laughable.
‘If they follow down this track, putting conditions on our unconditional offers and trying to insult us, the EU will end up with a relationship with its third biggest economy and largest security partner that lets down millions of citizens.’
Disagreement this week centred on the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system, designed as an alternative to America’s GPS. The European Commission has insisted that non-EU countries should be locked out of its highsecurity elements.
The Cabinet has been left furious over its stance and is demanding unrestricted access to the programme, which has been factored into British military plans. Mr Hammond yesterday repeated that Britain is braced to push ahead with its own system, which could cost up to £5billion. ‘The plan has always been to work as a core member of the Galileo project, contributing financially and technically to the project,’ he said. ‘If that proves impossible then Britain will have to go it alone, possibly with partners outside Europe and the US.’
It is believed that Australia could enter into a future development project.
Britain said this week it could seek a return of its £1.2billion Galileo investment and said failure to find a resolution jeopardised a future security deal. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier weighed in to the row yesterday by telling the UK that it needs to start approaching talks with a sense of ‘realism’ following accusations of making ‘fantasy’ demands.
‘Time is running short,’ he said. ‘ Realism is needed on future relationship.’
His remarks will be seen as a ringing endorsement of the controversial comments that sparked the fallout earlier this week.
In another contentious move, EU officials said Britain’s requested membership of the European Arrest Warrant extradition scheme is ‘simply not available’.
Instead, the bloc’s negotiating team told the UK it is responsible for filling the ‘capability gap’ despite warnings that depleted criminal justice measures could pose a public safety risk
‘This is Brexit,’ a senior EU figure told British negotiators this week, while suggesting that the issues should have been considered during the referendum. ‘We said that we hoped that this capability gap would have informed before the referendum or that analysis would have been done after.’
They indicated a willingness to draw up an extradition treaty but said that achieving a similar level of co-operation to that at present was a ‘big ask’.
‘Their claims are laughable’