‘LE SUMMIT’ TO SORT BREXIT?
MAY AND MACRON’S CRUNCH TALKS ON FRENCH ISLE
THERESA May was last night locked in crunch talks with French President Emmanuel Macron amid hopes that a breakthrough on a Brexit deal was close.
The Prime Minister cut short her holiday in Switzerland to visit Mr Macron in the South of France to try to persuade him of the merits of her Chequers plan to form a deep and close partnership with the EU.
The discussions were shrouded in secrecy, with the two just posing for pictures and publicly exchanging warm words.
Mrs May enjoyed a dinner at the island holiday home of Mr Macron. She arrived at Fort Bregancon, on the Mediterranean coast near Toulon, in the early evening after breaking off from her walking holiday.
It is understood that, apart from a few officials, only the Prime Minister’s husband Philip and Mr Macron’s wife Brigitte were present during the dinner.
The menu consisted of tomatoes and saffron-flavoured langoustines, thyme-flavoured sea bass, chicken with vegetables, cheese and dark chocolate creme brulee or fruit.
Sources in Brussels have said that President Macron is the main obstacle to achieving agreement on a Brexit deal, with France consistently being the voice rejecting compromises offered by the UK.
An Elysee Palace source denied this, however, telling Le Monde: “The absence of an agreement on the withdrawal is not a scenario that we, 18 as our partners, wish.”
Despite this, the source said there 23 would be no official announcement or 19 agreement from the meeting, and that Brussels was still making the key decisions.
A British official concurred, saying: “There will be no declaration after the meeting.
“It’s just a routine working get-together.”
It will be the fourth high-level meeting between UK and French politicians in France in eight days, as the British lobby their counterparts.
Before her meeting with the French president, it also emerged that the Prime Minister had had a telephone conversation with EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, in what observers saw as a bid to move talks on.
The discussions have followed warnings by Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in visits to a number of European capitals that the European Union risks accidentally ending up with “no deal”, which would mean it does not get the £39billion divorce bill and would suffer the consequences of lost access to the UK market.
A failure to get a deal and fall back on to World Trade Organisation terms, on the other hand could be highly beneficial for the UK, with countries operating on those terms currently doing significantly better than many EU member states.
Ahead of the talks, an EU diplomat told the Daily Express that pressure is mounting from some member states for a change on the Brussels hard line by chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
“Michel Barnier is still the EU27’s chief negotiator but his negotiating guidelines are set by heads of state,” he said.
“By visiting Macron and [Angela] Merkel, Prime Minister May is going over Barnier’s head and they can change under pressure.”
It is understood that the Germans are open to concessions and that Mrs Merkel approves of the controversial Chequers plan, which creates a common rule book on goods but excludes services.
However, Mr Barnier, whose language has noticeably softened this week, has nevertheless attacked the proposals for undermining the EU single market.
IS IT too much to hope that we are finally seeing a breakthrough in Brexit negotiations with the EU? The Conservative Government’s charm offensive against the French reached fever pitch last night in the meeting between Prime Minister Theresa May and President Emmanuel Macron. This comes in the wake of the Foreign Secretary’s recent visit to Paris in which he warned that there was a real chance of Britain leaving the EU with no trade deal.
France has been intransigent but Mr Macron is as well aware as Mrs May that this would also not be in the interests of the French people.
Whatever our differences, Britain is an enthusiastic consumer of French wine and cheese and French food producers are certainly not going to want to see any disruption when Britain leaves the EU. The French tourist industry benefits massively from the British, too.
But the signs are more encouraging. Even before the meeting the Élysée Palace was briefing that France did not want Britain to leave without a trade deal. The President himself is a pragmatic man who understands that he must protect his country’s own interests.
The only carp we have about this meeting is that it should have been held a long time ago. But it’s better late than never and let’s hope Mrs May hasn’t had a wasted trip.