UK’S position papers are ‘not satisfactory’, says Juncker
AS THE war of words between the EU and the UK continued, Jean-claude Juncker said that none of the British position papers published before this week’s negotiations were “satisfactory”.
The president of the European Commission also heaped more pressure on Britain to weaken its stance over the “Brexit bill” as the second day of talks in Brussels got under way yesterday.
The sniping between both sides started on Monday after Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, used a joint press conference with David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, to scold Britain for “ambiguity” in its stance on the so-called “divorce bill”.
In comments described by British sources as “ill-judged and unhelpful”, Mr Barnier also lectured the UK to take the issue “seriously”.
In a speech to EU ambassadors yesterday, Mr Juncker said he had read all the papers produced by the British Government with the “requisite attention”. “None of those is satisfactory,” he said, “so there are an enormous amount of issues that need to be settled.”
A spokesman for Theresa May denied the talks were at the point of collapse after Mr Juncker’s criticism.
He said: “As David Davis said, we need the EU to show some more imagination and flexibility. Some of the exit issues cannot be resolved until we also talk about our future relationship.”
Mr Juncker also warned that there would be no discussions of a free trade deal until progress was made on the Brexit bill, Ireland and citizens’ rights.
“We need to be crystal clear that we will commence no negotiations on the new economic and trade relationship between the UK and the EU before all these questions are resolved,” he said.
“That is the divorce between the EU and the UK. We cannot mix these issues up.” Mr Juncker added: “First of all we settle the past before we look forward to the future.”
Britain published 11 position papers in total, including four last week, before more than 100 British negotiators travelled to Brussels this week.
A source familiar with the talks said that the EU had not published a position paper on Ireland but Britain had. The source added: “I am not sure what point Mr Juncker is trying to make.”
Like a headmaster ticking off a naughty schoolboy, Jean-claude Juncker, the European Commission president, yesterday declared that the Brexit preparations of the British government were “not satisfactory”. He was following up criticism levelled by Michel Barnier, the chief negotiator, who has told the UK side in the resumed talks to start behaving “seriously”.
Who do they think they are? The attitude of these two unelected apparatchiks displays all the unaccountable arrogance that has put so many people off the EU, and not just in Britain. Were the voters in some other countries given a referendum on continued membership, the chances are the result would be the same as it was here.
All negotiations inevitably involve moments where one side accuses the other of bad faith or questions their willingness to achieve a settlement. But leaving the EU is a process that any member state is entitled to follow under the Lisbon Treaty and is supposed to ensure an amicable relationship continues in future.
Armed with a negotiating mandate, the Commission has institutionalised the talks in Brussels and has set out to punish Britain. There are indications that Europe’s leading nations, such as France, are beginning to appreciate the dangers here. It is in no one’s interests for the EU and the UK to part company amid acrimony that will blight their relationship for years to come.
President Macron and, when she emerges from her election campaign, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, need to recognise that the Commission duo handling these negotiations could cause irreparable diplomatic damage unless they are brought to heel.