Chancellor Angela Merkel’s pragmatism could help rejuvenate talks as Berlin takes on the EU presidency, politicians on both sides say.
Brexiteers have long argued Germans would get them a trade deal — it's just unlikely to be in the way people in London imagined.
Negotiations are headed for a showdown in the fall, after minimal progress in talks since the U.K. formally left the European Union in January. After the U.K. last week formally rejected an extension to the transition period and an EU-U.K. leaders conference ended Monday with little more than promises to intensify negotiations, both sides are preparing for a (familiar) Brexit drama later in the year.
Conveniently, people on both ends say, Germany is taking over the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on July 1.
Even though Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier is leading the talks for the EU and there are no plans by EU countries to change his negotiating mandate, the Council presidency plays an important role in maintaining unity among the 27 EU member countries and finding potential compromises that could be acceptable to them.
German Ambassador to the EU Michael Clauss told a recent panel discussion by the European Policy Centre that he expects Brexit "to absorb a lot, or most, of the political attention" of the German presidency in September and October.
Great expectations
In London, hopes of a German intervention are based on not only Chancellor Angela Merkel's reputation for pragmatic deal making, but also a belief that Berlin wants to avoid a no-deal scenario that would hit its export-oriented industry.
“Angela Merkel has historically shown herself to be a pragmatist and less doctrinaire than, for example, [French President Emmanuel] Macron," said Conservative MP David Jones, a former junior Brexit minister who also serves as deputy chair of the European Research Group of Brexiteer backbenchers.
"She recognizes the reality of the U.K.’s departure and understands the mutual importance of Anglo-German trade. I would expect the German presidency to reflect Merkel’s pragmatism; it comes fortuitously in the final stages of the future relationship negotiations," he added....
"She cannot spare the British the fact that some castles in the air and irresolvable contradictions that were promised as part of Brexit will fall apart"— Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU
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