22 September 2017

POLITICO: Michel Barnier’s private Brexit road show

Barnier has been delivering this uncharacteristically blunt assessment in a series of meetings and briefings for elite audiences across the Continent, according to several attendees who described the sessions for POLITICO. [...]

In meetings with public officials, private citizen groups and business executives, Barnier has warned in recent days that the U.K. will not achieve the “special” bespoke trade deal it has demanded without lengthy negotiations after its official departure. He said the U.K. was rejecting existing models for a future relationship such as those with Norway and Switzerland and advocating a path of divergence from EU standards. The risk for the EU, he said, is that Britain would, in future, try to gain a competitive trade advantage by adopting lower social or environmental standards.

“We are not going to mix up models,” Barnier has said, according to people who have heard his most recent stump speech, in which he refers to existing EU arrangements with Turkey, Norway and others. “But each model is available.”

In his recent appearances, including a luncheon speech at the exclusive Cercle Gaulois club in Brussels, a briefing at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and in other private meetings, Barnier has reiterated in blunt language that the U.K.’s refusal to commit to a financial settlement had put its future relationship with the EU in jeopardy.

“How do you build a future relationship if there’s no trust, if you haven’t honored your commitments?” Barnier repeatedly asks his audiences.  “I don’t know how to do that.”

While his public remarks often seem carefully constructed for British ears, with pleadings such as “we need more clarity,” in private Barnier is at times considerably more direct. In one case, describing the U.K.’s obligation to the EU’s current long-term budget, which runs to 2020, Barnier said: “We don’t accept to pay as 27 what has been decided at 28. It’s as simple as that. No way.” [...]

His main message underscores the deepening frustration in Brussels over what EU officials view as the U.K.’s muddled approach to the negotiations so far. [...]

At the negotiating table, Barnier has insisted that there can be no discussion of a future relationship until the withdrawal terms are settled. But in meetings with European stakeholders, Barnier is more than willing to look ahead, and has described himself as ready and even eager to begin negotiations on a future trade relationship with Britain as soon as the European Council judges that “sufficient progress” has been achieved on the divorce terms.

But he has also stressed that a future trade accord will have to be a so-called mixed agreement that will therefore require both lengthy negotiations as well as ratification by some 40 national and regional parliaments — a high hurdle that nearly derailed a trade accord with Canada last year. [...]

Full article on POLITICO

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