European Commission gives U.K. 10 days to break Brexit deadlock

BRUSSELS U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has 10 days to come up with a new offer on the Brexit divorce bill if she wants to break the deadlock in negotiations before the end of the year.

European Council president Donald Tusk gave May until Dec. 4 to make extra efforts to resolve the differences between the two sides — most notably on the money and the thorny question of the future of the Irish border. On that day, May is planning to dine with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Dec. 4, a meeting that now becomes a critical milestone for Brexit.

The deadline, disclosed by an EU official speaking anonymously after a private meeting between Tusk and May, sets the stage for a frantic week-and-a-half of talks between British and European negotiators.

Both sides are targeting the Dec. 14-15 European summit as the moment when they want to be able to declare that sufficient progress has been made on the split to allow talks to begin on future trade and the transition business craves.

At a meeting in Brussels on Friday, Tusk told May that unless she makes her offer by Dec. 4 there won’t be enough time for European leaders to agree sufficient progress has been made on the divorce to allow trade talks to be approved at the December summit, the official said.

Speaking after her private talks with Tusk in Brussels, May said she found a “genuine feeling” that both the EU and the U.K. want to break the deadlock in Brexit talks.

“There are still issues across the various matters that we’re negotiating on to be resolved but there’s been a very positive atmosphere in the talks,” May told reporters. “And a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together.”

For his part, Tusk said that it was possible to reach a breakthrough in December, though it would be a “huge challenge.” An EU official said May had agreed to the timetable set out by Tusk.

May was in Brussels for a summit of European leaders on the theme of the EU’s partnership with countries on it’s eastern borders. She used the gathering to make her case to her counterparts — including Germany’s Angela Merkel — that it’s time for Brexit talks to advance.

The U.K.’s biggest fear is that the EU will not agree to allow talks to move on to discuss the future trade relationship and the transition period, even if May makes a new offer on paying the bloc’s unmet bills when Britain leaves.

Suspicions remain in London that the EU will simply bank any new promise and then demand more, without agreeing to move talks on to the second phase — the future. British officials believe that would be fatal to the negotiations process and want concrete assurances that a new offer on the money will be reciprocated, the person said.

When it comes to trust, a history of damaging leaks on dinners highlight the stakes. Back in May, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Juncker as saying he left a meal with May at 10 Downing Street “10 times more skeptical” about Brexit. The Brits were not impressed, and May accused the EU of “deliberately” meddling ahead of her election.

Negotiations are currently stuck on two issues: how much the U.K. will pay toward the cost of EU loans, and European officials’ pensions, and the future arrangements for the country’s land border with Ireland. May won the backing of her senior ministers to improve her offer on the money earlier this week but the Irish question remains.

According to the EU official, Tusk told May she must deal with the border between the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU, and Northern Ireland, part of the U.K.

The Irish government has escalated its rhetoric on the post-Brexit border with the U.K., with full support from the EU.