EU’s Eurosceptic leaders say no to May’s Brexit bid

THERESA May’s hopes of finding allies among the EU’s Eurosceptic government leaders was dealt a blow yesterday. The British prime minister met Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Czech prime minister Andrej Babis in Salzburg as she tried to build alliances – while the clock ticks down to the Brexit date of March next year.

Both the Austrian and Czech governments have been critical of aspects of EU policy, but Czech state secretary for European affairs Ales Chmelar insisted there was unity behind Michel Barnier’s approach to the talks.

EU chief negotiator Mr Barnier made it clear on Thursday that Mrs May’s white paper on Brexit is not acceptable to Brussels.

And Mr Chmelar told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday: ‘There is a clear problem with the fact that the EU will not have a mechanism to control its borders and it would be delegated, without any EU control, to a third country, which would be Britain after March. So that is the key principle. But also there is a larger general principle... it is almost physically impossible to have, at the same time, full regulatory autonomy on one side and full market access.’

He indicated that Mrs May’s hopes of finding support from her counterparts is misplaced, acknowledging the Czechs had concerns over how the EU works but insisting the bloc is united in its approach to Brexit talks.