Davis and EU slam the door on any hope of soft Brexit
Davis denies caving in to EU demands to settle money and citizens’ rights issues on day one of talks
DAVID DAVIS and the European Union last night quashed hopes for a “soft” Brexit as formal negotiations on leaving the EU finally got under way in Brussels.
The Brexit Secretary confirmed Britain would be leaving the customs union and the single market, in a move designed to scupper any parliamentary plots to water down the terms of the UK’S withdrawal from Europe.
His counterpart, Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, also confirmed that Britain would leave the single market and the customs union.
Such a unified public declaration of the intention to press ahead with a “hard” Brexit sends a clear message to Remainers in Parliament who still hope membership of the customs union and the single market is up for grabs.
Mr Davis said Britain would seek a free trade agreement and a customs agreement with the EU, but added: “We need to bring back to Britain con- trol of our laws and control of our borders so we will be leaving the single market. Similarly we will be leaving the customs union. That’s the only way we can develop our free trade arrangements with the rest of the world and that is a major upside for Britain.”
Mr Barnier said: “The United Kingdom is going to leave the European Union, single market and the customs union.”
Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, is the most prominent of several Cabinet members who would prefer Britain to stay in the customs union, which would prevent the UK from striking its own trade deals outside the EU.
Mr Barnier and Mr Davis disclosed that they hope to reach a deal on migrants’ rights by the end of October, but trade talks will not begin until agreement on migrants, the Brexit “divorce bill” and the Irish border has been reached. Mr Davis denied that the Government had abandoned its demand for parallel talks on trade and the terms of withdrawal, saying “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”.
But Mr Barnier said: “I am not in a frame of mind to make concessions. The United Kingdom has decided to leave the European Union, it is not the other way around... the consequences are substantial.”
The pair said that the issue of Northern Ireland’s border with the Republic of Ireland had taken up the most time in their first day of talks. There were also disagreements over the “divorce bill”, as EU officials said no agreement had been reached on the need for Britain to pay anything.
Meanwhile The Daily Telegraph has learnt of a plot by Labour, the SNP and the Liberal Democrats to use the debate over tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech to topple the Government.
The opposition parties intend to table an amendment to the Queen’s Speech that would demand easier access to the single market and a crossparty Brexit Commission to reach a broad consensus on the terms of Britain’s withdrawal.
They hope to tempt so-called “remoaners” on the Tory benches into voting in favour of the amendment, which would strike a potentially fatal blow to Theresa May’s authority. The last time a Government was defeated over a Queen’s Speech was in 1924.
BRITAIN is questioning whether it is legally obliged to pay a Brexit divorce bill to the European Union, it emerged yesterday as the first day of talks descended into ill-concealed rancour.
The EU is demanding that the UK pays up to £85billion to meet outstandbasis’,” ing obligations after Brexit, a demand that has been heavily criticised by Cabinet ministers.
Britain reportedly believes it is not legally obliged to make any payment at all. “They question that there is a legal basis for an exit payment,” a senior EU official told Reuters.
UK negotiating sources confirmed that the British side had demanded an explanation for the demand, which Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, has described as “egregious”.
“We asked them to explain what they saw as the legal basis, which is not the same thing as saying there is ‘no legal a UK source said.
“We asked a large number of questions on the issues.”
The Brexit divorce bill and an agreement on the rights of expats on both sides of the Channel will be the first two items that will be settled in the talks, which will begin in earnest next month.
The two sides agreed that negotiations will be held in four-weekly cycles, with one week each month set aside for face-to-face negotiations, with the aim of making “sufficient progress” on these issues to begin trade talks after the EU summit in October.
Mr Davis denied that the Government had caved in to EU demands to settle money and citizens’ rights before talking trade terms, even though these will now not be discussed until October at the very earliest.
Britain had wanted to discuss both the terms of leaving the EU and the future of any trade deal in parallel, with Mr Davis previously describing the clash as one of the “rows of the summer”.
Theresa May will use this week’s European leaders summit in Brussels to brief EU leaders on how the UK intends to treat the 3.2 million EU citizens currently in the UK after Brexit, in an attempt to kick-start the substantive negotiations on a positive note.
Further details will be contained in a white paper to be published by the Government on Monday, with the key issue on the EU side being how the UK can legally guarantee those rights without submitting to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.
The formal talks opened with attempts on both sides to be positive. Mr Davis promised to be “constructive” while Michel Barnier said that there was no intention to punish the UK, but instead focus on arranging an “orderly withdrawal”.
The two lead negotiators, who already disagree on many of the fundamental points on Brexit, exchanged gifts that recognised their shared passion in hiking.
It did not take long before there were quips on social media about having “mountains to climb”.
Mr Barnier produced a carved walking stick from his native Savoie for Mr Davis, while the Brexit secretary presented his counterpart and with a signed copy of a classic mountaineering book Regards vers Annapurna, an account of an epic French expedition to the Himalayas in 1950.
Once inside the meeting room, Mr Davis, facing his counterpart across a giant horseshoe negotiating table, tried to strike a statesmanlike tone, using his opening remarks to promise that the UK wanted to remain a “committed partner” to the EU.
“This partnership will necessarily look and feel different from membership. But we hope that throughout, our close cooperation on trade and on security will continue as we tackle the the challenges of this and future generations together,” he said.
It did not take long for the mask to slip, however, with Mr Barnier striking an exasperated tone at the end of a long day’s talks, when asked if the EU has made any significant concessions to the British – given that the UK had agreed to all the EU’S demands over the schedule for the talks.
“I am not in a frame of mind to make concessions, or ask for concessions,” he said tartly, adding that the EU was only following through on the UK’S own decision to leave, which would have “substantial” consequences. “It is not about punishment, it is not about revenge,” he said.
But it was clear emotions are running high on both sides. “I will do all I can to put emotion to one side and stick to the facts, the figures, and the legal basis, and work with the United Kingdom to find an agreement in that frame of mind,” Mr Barnier added.
Mr Davis, repeating the UK position that any final deal would have to include the outline of a future relationship as agreed under Article 50, chose to quote Winston Churchill in summing up the prospects for a mutually beneficial deal.
“There is no doubt the road ahead will be challenging, but as Winston Churchill said ‘The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.’ And I am certainly an optimist.”