09 June 2017

Financial Times: EU reacts with consternation to UK election as Brexit talks loom

Brexit talks are due to begin on June 19 but European politicians acknowledged that this timetable could now slip.

Michel Barnier, Europe’s chief Brexit negotiator, said the timetable for the talks was clear. “Brexit negotiations should start when UK is ready; timetable and EU positions are clear,” he wrote on Twitter. “Let’s put our minds together on striking a deal.”

Manfred Weber, leader of the powerful centre-right group in the European parliament, said: “The clock is ticking for Brexit. Therefore the UK needs a government soon.”

“[The] EU is united, UK is deeply split. PM May wanted stability but brought chaos to her country instead,” he wrote on Twitter.

Britain’s political turmoil is unlikely to change the underlying policy positions of the EU, but with the result ending in a UK hung parliament officials in Brussels will not know who they will be negotiating with, when they will be ready, or if the policy outlook will match that mapped out by Mrs May before the election.

“We’re not dancing and celebrating the uncertainty,” said an official involved in preparations on the EU side. “It will make things more complicated, and it was complicated enough.”

In practical terms the EU will be open to giving Westminster time to form a government, be it for a few weeks or a couple of months. But should there be deadlock in Westminster, there is extremely unlikely to be any willingness to extend deadlines.

However, senior diplomats were also suggesting that the hung parliament could result in London stepping back from the “hard Brexit” stance taken by Mrs May when she said the UK would leave Europe’s single market and customs union.

“If this goes anywhere, it has to be towards a Brexit closer to the EU,” said one. “An incoming prime minister would surely have the wiggle room to revisit the decisions to exit the single market and customs union.”

The two-year deadline of Article 50 — March 29 2019 — is likely to hold for the time being. France and Germany are loath to let the Brexit saga drag on past the European elections in 2019. Impatience with London was growing after a campaign marked by some tough anti-EU rhetoric. “The mood is to cut them loose,” said one senior EU diplomat.

On policy, the EU side may need to adjust to a different angle of engagement with the Brits, once they are ready.

All preparations by Mr Barnier were based on the UK holding to an approach that leaves the single market, customs union and takes control of immigration.

There was also a view in the EU that a strong Mrs May would be able to strike deals in Brussels and then sell them to a hostile media in Britain and to the hardliners in her own party. [...]

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