YOU CAN’T BULLY US MR BARNIER
Stubborn Brussels boss is blamed for Brexit stalemate
BRITAIN’S relations with Brussels plunged to an icy new low last night after the latest round of Brexit talks broke up in acrimonious deadlock.
Chief negotiator Michel Barnier enraged UK officials with a point-blank refusal to let the discussions move on to a new trade deal without a recognition that Britain owes the EU billions in taxpayers’ cash.
He claimed the issue was undermining “trust” in the Government and accused Britain of wallowing in “nostalgia”. But ministers hit back with a warning that we will not be bullied into backing down.
EU Exit Secretary David Davis told him tersely: “I would not confuse a belief in the free market for nostalgia.” The pair traded barbs in their most frosty exchange yet after their talks
ended unexpectedly early having made virtually no progress on key issues. Patience with the negotiations appeared to be wearing thin at Westminster last night.
Senior Brexit-backing MPs believe the veteran Eurocrat is attempting to railroad the UK into paying more and giving in to EU demands.
Former Tory Cabinet minister John Redwood said: “Mr Barnier should realise that there is no legal obligation for Britain to pay anything at all.
“It is manifestly in the EU’s interests that he gets on with building a strong future relationship, which is what Britain is offering.
“He is very lucky that the UK Government has made such a generous offer on trade. The UK always pays its bills when they are properly constructed. We don’t pay bills for things we haven’t had and for expenditure after we have left.”
Tory backbencher Charlie Elphicke, a supporter of the Eurosceptic group Change Britain, said: “The EU’s stubbornness and inflexibility is doing little to aid the progress of negotiations. Many of the key issues in the withdrawal talks are inextricably linked to our future trading relationship, therefore Brussels must be willing to move forward to the next stage of discussions.
Irritation
“Both sides can then work towards a deal which benefits citizens and businesses across the UK and EU.”
After four days of wrangling between the British and EU negotiating teams at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, the talks broke up more than four hours ahead of schedule yesterday.
They are due to reconvene next month but the agenda will be dominated by the same sticking points, including the massive divorce fee sought by Brussels.
At a news conference filled with testy exchanges, Mr Barnier admitted there had been “no decisive progress” on key issues.
In one menacing aside, he insisted his “determination” should not be read as anger. “If I do get angry sometime, it will be obvious,” he warned.
The diplomat hinted that talks may have to be intensified, suggesting they may need more frequent meetings. He voiced deep irritation that Mr Davis’s team had refused to accept EU claims that Britain was “legally obliged” to honour a string of financial obligations that extend beyond the official exit date in March 2019.
The EU insists Britain should remain committed to a series of loans to Ukraine and a string of countries in Africa and other parts of the world as well as a series of environmental and infrastructure projects.
“In July the UK recognised that it has obligations beyond the Brexit date but this week the UK explained that these obligations will be limited to the last payment to the EU project before departure,” Mr Barnier said.
He once again refused to spell out the potential exit bill.
European Commission sources have suggested it could reach an eye-watering £90billion.
Mr Davis responded by defending the Government’s right to “rigorously” question every detail of the EU’s financial demands.
“It will, of course, lead to difficult exchanges – nobody will pretend it was anything but a tough exchange this week – but I think the British taxpayer would expect nothing less,” he said. Mr Davis warned that the two
sides were at loggerheads over what Britain will be legally due to pay on leaving the bloc through the EU’s Article 50 departure process.
“It’s fair to say across the piece we have a very different legal stance, but, as we said in the Article 50 letter, the settlement should be in accordance with law and in the spirit of the UK’s continuing partnership with the EU,” he added.
Mr Davis pointedly disagreed with Mr Barnier over the way the talks had gone, suggesting there had been “some concrete process”.
And he repeated his call for the EU to show “flexibility” by giving up its rigid refusal to allow the trade talks to open before significant progress has been made on the divorce bill, the settlement rights of EU citizens and UK expatriates and other withdrawal issues. “This is not about skipping ahead or trying to reopen previous discussions, it is about pragmatically driving the process we all want to see,” he insisted.
Mr Barnier is expected to present his assessment of whether the talks can move on to the trade issue before a summit of EU leaders in October.
“At the current state of progress we are quite far from being able to say that sufficient progress has taken place,” he said.
And he accused the British team of making “simply impossible” demands for access to the EU’s single market.
“The UK wants to take back control, wants to adopt its own standards and regulations – but it also wants to have these standards recognised automatically in the EU,” he said. “This is simply impossible. You cannot be outside the single market and shape its legal order.”
He added: “In some proposals I see a sort of nostalgia in the form of specific requests which would amount to continuing to enjoy the benefits of single market membership, without actually being part of it.”
Meanwhile, senior Tory MP Anna Soubry last night issued a joint appeal with Labour backbencher Chuka Umunna for the UK to remain a member of the EU’s Customs Union.
The two prominent Remain campaigners claimed quitting the union would be “a reckless and economically dangerous self-inflicted wound”.
DAVID DAVIS has done a fine job in Brussels of fairly representing the British Government’s position and trying to find ways in which he can work together with his EU counterparts to deliver a mutually beneficial Brexit deal. Sadly his honest, flexible and pragmatic approach has not been matched by his opposite number.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has been more of a hindrance than a help ever since the Brexit process began. As an individual he has proved to be petty, thin-skinned and arrogant. This is hardly the sort of personality that lends itself to working with British diplomats and politicians to find a way forward.
As a negotiator he has been stubborn and inflexible. His refusal to consider trade talks until we have agreed to send Brussels billions of pounds is a significant reason why more progress has not been made.
It is difficult to see how we can do business with a man who shows no real interest in compromise.
The Government must do all it can to appeal to the more reasonable figures on the EU side.
If that fails, ministers cannot be afraid to walk away from the talks.