The ball is in your court, ‘optimistic’ May will tell Brussels
Prime Minister to update MPS on Brexit progress, saying Britain will ‘prove the doomsayers wrong’
THERESA MAY will today tell Brussels that “the ball is in your court” as she signals that she is not prepared to make any further concessions to break the deadlock in negotiations.
Ahead of a European summit later this month, the Prime Minister will also say that Britain can “prove the doomsayers wrong” and that she is “optimistic” that Brexit negotiations will succeed.
As Parliament returns, Mrs May will update MPS on the progress made since her speech in Florence in which she made a series of significant concessions.
Britain is offering to pay the EU €20 billion during a two-year transition period after Brexit and has also given an unqualified commitment to defence and security cooperation.
It raises the prospect that Brexit negotiations could remain deadlocked, increasing the chance of no deal.
Negotiations are at a standstill because the EU is refusing to allow talks about future trade deals to take place before “sufficient progress” has been made on the Brexit divorce bill, rights of citizens and Northern Ireland.
The Prime Minister will travel to Brussels in a fortnight’s time for a crucial meeting of the European Council.
She will tell the Commons: “As we look forward to the next stage, the ball is in their court. But I am optimistic we will receive a positive response.
“Because what we are seeking is not just the best possible deal for us – but also the best possible deal for our European friends too.
“So while, of course, progress will not always be smooth, by approaching these negotiations in a constructive way – in a spirit of friendship and cooperation and with our sights firmly set on the future – I believe we can prove the doomsayers wrong.
“And I believe we can seize the opportunities of this defining moment in the history of our nation.”
Her more positive language will draw comparisons with Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, in the wake of his 4,200-word article on Brexit in The Daily Telegraph last month. Mr Johnson has repeatedly hit out at the Brexit “gloom-mongers”. It comes after The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that Britain is prepared to release billions of pounds of investment to help the UK prepare in case there is no deal.
Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, is planning to release the money if no progress has been made on a transition deal by Christmas.
Dominic Raab, a Eurosceptic Tory MP and justice minister, yesterday said that there could be significant advantages to leaving the EU without a deal.
He said: “There are advantages to it, countervailing advantages if there isn’t a deal in terms of the early repatriation of the money” in terms of “things like the external EU tariffs” – worth several billion pounds – “that would come to the Chancellor’s coffers if we had those arrangements”.
It also emerged that the European Parliament is planning to host a string of speeches by European leaders in a bid to boost its profile.
The Telegraph has seen leaked minutes of the parliament’s secretive Conference of Presidents, a behindclosed-doors meeting of leaders of EU political groups.
It reveals that MEPS believe that their view on the future of the EU after Brexit is being overshadowed by major speeches by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, Jean-claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission and Mrs May.
“There was Macron in the Sorbonne and even May in Florence,” one source said. “The plan now is to make sure speeches like that by heads of state and governments are held in Brussels or Strasbourg.”
The parliament now plans to invite a string of EU heads of state and government to debate the EU’S future in the institution’s two seats of Brussels and Strasbourg in the run up to “Brexit Day” on March 29 2019 and the European Parliament elections in May.
Labour yesterday said it is prepared to offer annual payments to Brussels indefinitely in order to keep access to the single market after Brexit.
Jenny Chapman, the party’s Brexit minister, said Labour would leave the single market “on the table”.
Ms Chapman told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics: “We would leave the single market on the table, and it may be that there’s an arrangement that’s in the UK’S best interests that involves some sort of payment for access.
“That is something that we would leave on the table, unlike the Government that’s decided ‘we don’t want to be part of the customs union, we don’t want to be part of the single market’.”