UK takes combative ‘tone’ to Brexit talks

‘Don’t bully us’

BIRMINGHAM, England, Oct 1, (Agencies): Britain cannot be bullied, Brexit minister Dominic Raab said on Monday, sharpening the government’s criticism of the European Union for taunting Prime Minister Theresa May and souring difficult Brexit talks.

May’s ministers have come out one by one at their party’s annual conference in the city of Birmingham to warn the EU that they will embrace leaving without a deal if the bloc fails to show “respect” in the talks to end Britain’s membership.

Just six months before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, May faces growing criticism over her proposals not only in her governing party but also in Brussels.

Party unity is on ministers’ minds, and they are encouraging the faithful to direct their anger at the EU rather than at their prime minister, who some eurosceptic Conservatives accuse of leading Britain towards a “Brexit in name only”.

Other ministers, such as finance minister Philip Hammond, have taken a softer tone, pointing out that leaving without a deal could hurt Britain’s economy, the world’s fifth largest.

But Raab said he had called on the EU to match the “ambition and pragmatism” Britain had put forward with May’s Chequers proposals, named after her country residence where an agreement with her ministers was hashed out in July.

“Unfortunately, that wasn’t on display in Salzburg,” he said, describing a summit last month in the Austrian city where EU leaders rejected parts of the Chequers plan.

“Our prime minister has been constructive and respectful. In return we heard jibes from senior leaders and we saw a starkly one-sided approach to negotiation.”

“What is unthinkable is that this government, or any British government, could be bullied by the threat of some kind of economic embargo, into signing a one-sided deal against our country’s interests,” Raab said.

Instead of the much-hoped-for staging post, the Salzburg summit has become a byword for a sharp deterioration in the atmosphere of the talks, when British government officials felt May was ambushed by the other EU leaders over Brexit.

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A diplomatic tussle has broken over the European Union’s flagship defence cooperation pact, amid warnings the bloc could cut itself off from major allies like the US and post-Brexit Britain.

London and Washington want their defence companies to get involved with projects launched under the deal, but the EU is sharply at odds over what the rules should be for non-members to take part.

A number of ministers and diplomats have told AFP that if the EU excludes non-members it risks sacrificing expertise on the altar of principle, just as fears about Russian threats to European security are running at post-Cold War highs.

Brussels launched “permanent structured cooperation on defence”, known as PESCO, last year to great fanfare. The aim was to unify European defence thinking and to rationalise a fragmented approach to buying and developing military equipment.

There is broad agreement among the 25 states signed up that non-EU countries should be allowed to contribute to some of the projects.