The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May seeks Brexit concessions, but Europe not yielding so far
BRUSSELS — British Prime Minister Theresa May made a whirlwind tour Tuesday of European capitals to try to win further concessions on her deal to pull Britain from the European Union, a day after her plan’s unpopularity led her to cancel a key parliamentary vote.
But the issue that has made the Brexit deal politically toxic in Britain is nonnegotiable on the European side, and it was unclear whether May could gain anything to improve her political math as she bounced from The Hague to Berlin to Brussels.
Reflecting spiking European fears that Britain could crash out of the EU without a deal, the chief EU Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, urged colleagues to speed their preparations for the humanitarian and economic crisis that would ensue.
Leaders offered kind words to May and said they would do everything they could to help her sell the deal to the British Parliament, but they refused to back down from an ironclad backup plan to ensure there will never be a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
“There is no room whatsoever for renegotiation,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. “Ireland will never be left alone.”
Declaring himself “astonished” at May’s inability to master her domestic politics, Juncker said that Europeans could give “further clarifications and further interpretations” to help the ease the British debate — diplomatic code for declarations that could be politically symbolic but ultimately will not be substantive or binding.
EU leaders plan to discuss Brexit on Thursday during a previously scheduled summit in Brussels.
European ministers gathered ahead of that meeting said, one after another, that they could imagine no change in the fundamentals of the deal.
“We have done a lot to help the U.K. in its withdrawal agreement,” French Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau said. “It is the only possible agreement. And we have done a lot of concessions to reach it.”
She said France had begun to brace for Britain leaving the EU in March without any deal at all, a situation that could halt travel and trade. France will “take all necessary measures” to prepare for a crisis, she said.
German officials offered similarly no-nonsense warnings. Asked whether the EU could do anything to help May, German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth said: “It’s always good to talk to each other.”
But on Tuesday, leaders appeared to be talking past one another. Roth’s British counterpart, Martin Callanan, said May wanted “additional, legal reassurances that the U.K. cannot be permanently trapped in the Irish backstop,” using the term for the backup plan that would keep an open border on the island of Ireland. “That’s been the issue all along, and that’s the issue at the heart of the concerns expressed by many members of Parliament.”
By the end of the day, the limit of May’s negotiating position was apparent.
“There is a shared determination to deal with this issue and address this problem,” she said after finishing her meetings.
She repeated the line she had used going in: The current agreement is “the best deal available. Indeed, it’s the only deal available.”
As she traveled across Europe, May received friendly receptions, even if leaders offered nothing to alter Britain’s political calculus.