EU left seething over Brexit timing
BELGIUM: The European Union’s plans to hold a Brexit summit are in turmoil after British Prime Minister Theresa May delayed triggering Article 50 until next week.
Diplomats and officials in Brussels had hoped to hold a council of the EU’s 27 governments as early as April 6. However, No 10 Downing Street’s confirmation of March 29 as the trigger date has pushed back the timetable.
Brussels faces holding the meeting in the middle of French elections at the end of April or a delay into mid-May. The former could play into the hands of Marine Le Pen, the French National Front leader, and the latter would mean the loss of a month of negotiating time in talks that already face a difficult two-year deadline.
‘‘At last. We’ve been waiting for the negotiations to get started since Brexit was voted,’’ Michel Sapin, the French finance minister, said yesterday.
Once May triggers Article 50, European governments need time to agree on ‘‘guidelines’’ that will set the basis of negotiations and the terms of separation that will be put to Britain.
‘‘UK notification on March 29 does not leave sufficient time to prepare a European Council on April 6-7 to adopt the Brexit guidelines,’’ an EU source said. ‘‘No specific date, but we expect to need approximately four to six weeks to prepare or consult with EU27 member states.’’
France and other European governments are concerned that holding the summit on April 27, the first suitable date after Easter, would make Brexit a political controversy midway through the French presidential elections.
Diplomats fear that Le Pen will be able to make political capital out of a summit involving Francois Hollande, the country’s most unpopular president, just after she is expected to have won a firstround vote on April 23.
If a decision is taken to postpone until after the election is finished on May 7, the summit date slips into mid-May or later, losing valuable negotiation time.
On or before Friday next week, Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, will send out the ‘‘guidelines’’ to national capitals to form the basis of a mediating strategy for Michel Barnier, Europe’s lead negotiator.
The secret document will include a ‘‘bill’’, perhaps as high as £60 billion, for the British share of the EU’s financial liabilities, including the cost of pensions for European officials.
Paying the EU’s costs must be agreed, at least in principle, by May before other issues, such as Northern Ireland’s border or the acquired rights of Britons in Europe or European nationals in Britain, can be settled.
With the delays, the divorce will be presented at a first meeting between British and EU negotiators in late May or early June, with the northern autumn as a possible breaking point if Britain does not agree to the ‘‘guideline’’ demands.
Germany expressed confidence yesterday that May would submit to demands for Britain to pay up.
‘‘Britain’s payment obligations are valid for as long as they are set out in the treaties,’’ Wolfgang Schauble, Germany’s finance minister, said. ‘‘Britain is a reliable partner in all international agreements. I have no doubts here.’’
At the weekend, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, to whom Barnier will report, warned that the divorce deal offered would be take-it-or-leave-it.
Lubomir Zaoralek, the Czech Republic’s foreign minister, expressed his concerns, widely shared, that the untested EU exit process might not work or would take far longer than the two-year restriction on negotiations set in Article 50. – The Times