UK demands new proposals for Brexit deal

AFTER IMPASSE AT SALZBURG SUMMIT, PREMIER SAYS EU MUST SHOW RESPECT

Britain said yesterday it would not capitulate in Brexit talks and again urged its EU partners to engage with its proposals, as ministers in Paris and Berlin suggested the next move in the negotiations should come from London.

British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday demanded new proposals and respect from European Union leaders, saying after a summit in Austria that talks had hit an impasse — a position her foreign minister reinforced yestserday, even if that meant leaving the bloc next March without a deal.

“If the EU’s view is that just by saying no to every proposal made by the United Kingdom, we will eventually capitulate and end up either with a Norway option or indeed staying in the EU … then they’ve profoundly misjudged the British people,” Jeremy Hunt told BBC radio.

“We may be polite, but we have a bottom line. And so they need to engage with us now in seriousness.”

May’s defiant statement was welcomed yesterday by many in the British press that had seen the Salzburg summit as a failure for her.

The Daily Express said it was “May’s finest hour”.

Digging in too

But initial reactions from across the English Channel suggested France and Germany were digging in too.

EU leaders and May have said they want to get a deal agreed in October, to be finalised in November.

In Paris, Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau said that, while France still believed a good Brexit deal was possible, it must also prepare for a ‘no deal’ outcome.

Britain’s vote to leave “cannot lead to the EU going bust,” she said on France Info radio. “... That’s the message we have tried to send for several months now to our British counterparts, who may have thought we were going to say ‘yes’ to whatever deal they came up with.”

In Berlin, German Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth said the other 27 EU states were striving to achieve reasonable solutions. “The blame game against the EU is therefore more than unfair. We can’t solve the problems that are arising on the island (Britain) due to Brexit,” he said on Twitter.