We need much more time to reach Brexit deal — Barnier
MAY EVASIVE ABOUT THE CREATIVE NEW PROPOSAL THAT SUMMIT CHAIR TUSK HAS ASKED FOR
The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said yesterday much more time was needed to secure an exit deal for Britain, but that officials would work calmly and patiently in the coming weeks.
At the beginning of an EU summit in Brussels, Barnier told reporters: “We have worked a lot for the past few weeks and days, and nights also with the British delegations to reach a global agreement for the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration.”
“We are not there yet … We need time, we need much more time. We will continue the work in the next weeks calmly and patiently.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May said she believed a Brexit deal was still possible as she arrived in Brussels yesterday to meet her European Union counterparts, three days after talks stalled over how to manage the Irish border.
But fellow EU leaders sounded impatient, signalling that they were ready to listen to May but also preparing to discuss plans for Britain crashing out of the bloc in March without a deal.
Many suggested the core problem was May’s inability to rally her feuding party around a workable set of negotiating demands.
French President Emmanuel Macron said May could help by explaining what her precarious domestic situation would allow her to accept: “Theresa May must tell us what she can possibly accept considering the political balance,” he told reporters.
Kurz caution
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the ball was in Britain’s court but cautioned against predicting doom.
“It is always the case in negotiations that they are tense and difficult and challenging at the end. That doesn’t mean they will fail. No one wants these negotiations to fail, neither the EU nor Theresa May want a hard Brexit,” Kurz said.
May did not answer a question about whether she had brought the “creative” new proposal that summit chair Donald Tusk has asked for, instead sticking to a rehearsed line that a deal could be done and that it was in the EU’s interest to reach one.
“What we’ve seen is that we’ve solved most of the issues in the withdrawal agreement. There is still the question of the Northern Irish backstop,” she told reporters on arrival.
“By working intensively and closely, we can achieve that deal,” May added.
“Now is the time to make it happen.” Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed the tougher tone coming from the 27 other governments, whose leaders will gather over dinner after a presentation by May.