Brexit deal with Europe falls short
Agreement needed before trade talks can begin.
London and Brussels failed to clinch a long-sought breakthrough on Brexit after a series of dramatic twists that saw a tentative deal derailed by the delicate question of the Irish border.
“It was not possible to reach a complete agreement today,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters as glum negotiators looked on. Talks will resume this week and he’s confident there will be a agreement that paves the way for trade talks to begin.
May traveled to Brussels on Monday to meet Juncker for what was meant to be a key lunch to hash out the details and tie loose ends. She interrupted the lunch to speak to the leader of the Northern Irish party that props up her government — and which opposes the EU’s plan for the island after Brexit.
Shortly after that phone call, May and Juncker came out to declare no deal and left without taking questions. The pound fell. Going into the meeting, British officials had been downplaying the chances of a breakthrough and pushed back against the EU’s line that Monday was a deadline.
Even with this setback, the hope is still for a mid-December summit of EU leaders to conclude that Britain has achieved “sufficient progress” in this first phase of talks so that trade negotiations can start and the transition arrangement that business wants can be put in place. It’s 17 months since the referendum and Britain leaves the bloc in 15 months, with or without a deal.
The Irish border was always going to be an intractable challenge that would require political will on all sides. The invisible border now is only possible because both Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland are members of the EU’s single market and customs union. When the U.K. leaves the EU, Northern Ireland goes with it.
Another possible sticking point was the role of the European Court of Justice. The ECJ has totemic importance for the Brexit backers in May’s Conservative Party, who see it as a symbol of lost sovereignty.
On the EU side, it’s a possible deal-breaker as the veto-wielding European Parliament has made clear the court must have a role in protecting the rights of EU citizens living in the U.K. after Brexit. Neither side will be drawn into the specifics of why a deal fell through.
“We’ve been negotiating hard and a lot of progress has been made and on many of the issues there is a common understanding. On a couple of issues some differences do remain which require further negotiation and consultation,” May said.