EU will play hardball to keep U.K. as member

BR ATISL AVA, SLOVAKIA • Senior figures in the European Union believe Britain will give up on Brexit if they make negotiations as tough as possible.

British officials are fighting to stop Europe from adopting a no-compromise position in the hope the U.K. will change its mind about leaving the bloc.

The revelation came as Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said British politicians were to blame for Brexit because they spent 40 years spreading “lies” about the EU.

More than five prominent EU figures interviewed by The Daily Telegraph expressed doubt Britain would go through with Brexit when confronted by the “reality of the bureaucratic nightmare” and the “insane act of economic self-harm.”

One senior U.K. official involved in setting up negotiations said the EU elite “seem to think the game is to make us change our minds.”

The sense that battle lines are hardening came as the 27 EU leaders prepared for a summit Friday in Bratislava designed to show unity.

Donald Tusk, the European Council president, issued a nine-point letter urging EU leaders to use the summit to restore citizens’ faith in the European Union.

In a barely disguised appeal to make sure Britain was left demonstrably worse off by Brexit, Tusk insisted the 27 should “stick to the treaty” on issues such as free movement.

“If we do so, there will be no room for doubt that it is a good thing to be a member of the union,” he wrote.

In the European Parliament, the mood against Britain was soured by personal attacks on Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister and a leading Brexit negotiator, by former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage and Brexit Secretary David Davis.

Davis referred to his future interlocutor as “Satan” when addressing the foreign affairs select committee, while Farage called Verhofstadt a “fanatic.”