May demands respect:
THERESA May has demanded fresh thinking and more “respect” from EU leaders after they delivered a humiliating snub to her Chequers Plan for a soft Brexit.
With her critics circling ahead of the Tory conference, the Prime Minister tried to recover from Thursday’s brutal summit in Salzburg by making an assured and combative statement in Downing Street.
She admitted the UK and EU were at an “impasse” over economic relations and how to avoid a hard border in Ireland, but said Brussels needed to set out its alternatives.
She singled out EU Council President Donald Tusk, who said flatly on Thursday that Chequers “will not work” because it cherry-picked parts of the single market, and then mocked her on social media.
She said: “Donald Tusk said our proposals would undermine the single market. He didn’t explain how in any detail or make any counter-proposal. So we are at an impasse.
“Throughout this process, I have treated the EU with nothing but respect. The UK expects the same. A good relationship at the end of this process depends on it.
“At this late stage in the negotiations, it is not acceptable to simply reject the other side’s proposals without a detailed explanation and counter proposals.
“So we now need to hear from the EU what the real issues are and what their alternative is so that we can discuss them. Until we do, we cannot make progress.”
She said there remained “two big issues where we remain a long way apart”.
On trade, she said the EU offer of Norway-style membership of the European Economic Area and customs union would leave the UK under EU rules and its open migration system, but with the UK unable to strike its own trade deals.
Meanwhile, the second EU option of “a basic free trade arrangement” would effectively separate Northern Ireland economically from Great Britain.
She said: “Neither side should demand the unacceptable of the other. We cannot accept anything that threatens the integrity of our Union, just as they cannot accept anything that threatens the integrity of theirs.”
Significantly, Mrs May did not refer to the UK’S position as “Chequers”, suggesting she is willing to shift to a new negotiating stance.
She also made a unilateral offer to protect the rights of three million EU nationals living in the UK if there was a no-deal Brexit, and suggested the Irish border issue could be addressed by a revived Northern Ireland Assembly choosing to align Ulster with the Republic.
The speech, and Mrs May’s insistence that no deal remained better than the two EU bad deals on offer, prompted an immediate fall in the pound against the euro and dollar.
The comments also elicited a rather more contrite statement from Mr Tusk, who described himself as “a close friend of the UK and a true admirer of PM May”.
But he repeated that EU leaders reached a view on the Chequers Plan, which proposes a common EU-UK rulebook on goods but not services, after a thorough analysis.
Contradicting Mrs May, he said the UK had been told “every detail” of the EU’S objections weeks ago, and that Chequers was seen as “a step in the right direction”.
He said the UK stance at Salzburg had been “uncompromising”, despite compromise being required, and so the other EU27 nations had reiterated their trust in chief negotiator Michel Barnier and their position on the integrity of the single market and the Irish backstop.
Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the EU needed to “take the handbrake off” the talks. He said: “We’ve been rebuffed on our plans without any coherent explanation as to why. We’re going to hold our nerve, stay calm and keep negotiating in good faith.”