Lord Kerr, who helped draft EU legislation, says uncertainty over who will lead negotiations for UK is ‘very real problem'.
John Kerr, a crossbench peer who served as the UK’s ambassador to the EU, said there was “a very real problem in the United Kingdom ... that it is not clear who the negotiators are going to be”.
[...] Kerr said it was clear Davis was going to play a role in the talks, unlike Boris Johnson, but raised questions about his room for manoeuvre from No 10. [...]
Talking to a small Brussels audience at the European Policy Centre, Kerr said the British government had made “a very large negotiating mistake” by not making the EU an early offer of the closest possible cooperation on foreign policy, counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing. [...]
He also did not hide his view that May “seems to be in full cherry-picking mode” in her attempt to keep hold of the parts of the EU she likes best, an approach the EU has vetoed.
But he criticised the EU for the strict negotiating timetable that means the Brexit bill must be agreed before discussing future trade. The article 50 text, which Kerr played a role in drafting, states that the divorce deal shall take “account of the framework for [the departing state’s] future relationship with the Union”.
He said the EU had made a legal and political mistake, arguing that such a strict division “could have a price, by meaning the British will settle for a much smaller sum”. You can calculate the bill by reference to the past, but you must present it as the price of the future.” [...]
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