‘Brussels monster to replace Barnier’
AN EU official who once described Brexit as “stupid” and is known in Brussels as “the monster” has reportedly told friends he wants to take charge of trade negotiations with the UK.
Martin Selmayr, a former German lawyer infamous in EU circles for his Machiavellian management style, hopes to lead the Brexit talks after March 2019, according to The Sun on Sunday.
“Selmayr wants to send Barnier off into the horizon and leave open who will head up trade negotiations with the UK,” an EU source told the newspaper. “He’s very keen to take that position for himself.”
Mr Barnier became the EU’S public face in the Brexit talks after a series of ill-tempered press conferences with David Davis and Dominic Raab, his former UK counterparts.
But Mr Selmayr, the European Commission’s secretarygeneral, has taken a harsher line in public than many of his EU colleagues, describing
Brexit as “stupid” in September.
He has also been accused of leaking two deeply embarrassing accounts of meetings between Theresa May and his boss, which sought to portray the Prime Minister as ill-prepared and incompetent.
The first, which was passed to German newspaper FAZ in May, was a near-verbatim account of a dinner where it is claimed Mr Juncker said he was “10 times more sceptical” about the likelihood of a good Brexit deal. At the time Mr Selmayr strongly denied having anything to do with the leak, though he is one of only a few officials capable of providing an accurate account of the fateful dinner.
He was also responsible for publishing a memo urging EU countries to prepare for a no-deal Brexit on the same day that Dominic Raab, the then Brexit secretary, came to Brussels for talks.
Some former colleagues refer to him as the “monster in the Berlaymont” – the Commission’s headquarters – due to his reputation for ruthless backroom tactics.
However, an EC spokesman said Mr Selmayr was “not interested” in taking over from Mr Barnier. “The Article 50 process is not yet completed so it is premature to speculate about what happens afterwards,” they said. “Mr Selmayr has a very fulfilling job as the secretary-general.” The spokesman also rejected speculation that Mr Selmayr had expressed an interest in becoming the EU’S ambassador to London.