May, EU leader agree about Brexit talks’ pace
Busy day of diplomacy sets stage for future
BRUSSELS — Britain’s prime minister capped a day of Brexit diplomacy Monday with hugs from the chief of the European Union’s executive arm and an agreement that negotiations on the U.K.’S departure from the EU need to be sped up.
Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-claude Juncker said after dining together in Brussels that the stalled talks “should accelerate over the months to come.”
Earlier in the day, May spoke by telephone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Irish leader Leo Varadkar to build support before the working dinner with senior European Union officials.
Britain is set to cut its membership with the EU in March 2019. Officials have said the negotiations should be concluded by November 2018, making haste a necessity.
May is scheduled to join the leaders of the 27 other EU countries at a Brussels summit later this week. The remaining countries were set to announce there had been insufficient progress in the talks to begin negotiating a future trade relationship, a step Britain badly wants.
EU estimates suggest Britain must pay from 60 billion euros to 100 billion euros ($80 billion to $120 billion) to settle commitments it made while part of the EU, such as development projects and the pensions of civil servants. Britain has rejected such figures.
The EU is demanding progress on the so-called divorce issues — the financial settlement, citizens’ rights and the status of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland — before talks can move on to issues such as future trading and security arrangements.
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday urged the EU to speed up talks and start a discussion of the future relationship with the U.K.
The pressure is on for May and her government. Big business, and in particular the financial services industry, is pressuring the country’s leaders to act, arguing that further delays will force companies to relocate.
Financial firms with EU headquarters in London worry about losing the automatic right to do business in the rest of the EU if Britain crashes out of the bloc without agreeing on a new trade relationship.