29 September 2019

The Guardian: 'It's gloomy': EU unlikely to change position, says senior German MP

Günter Krings, the parliamentary state secretary to the interior minister, told the Conservative party conference the EU is unlikely to change its negotiation position on Brexit even if there is a change of government.

Krings said he was “gloomy” about the prospects of a deal despite Johnson expressing optimism that a deal was close.

“Why am I gloomy? I know that the EU is not willing to make many concessions on this. The deal has been done between 27 members as it is,” he said.

In a setback for Johnson and his strategist Dominic Cummings, who hope a clear majority in parliament will clear the path for a Brexit deal of their choice, Krings said that an election may not solve the issue.

“Even after a new election, there might still be a possibility that you get a deal which is not much different than the one you have now.

“It might solve the internal problem of having a parliament which is in a difficult situation, but it probably won’t do much to solve the problem in finding an agreement with the EU. We have to be realistic about this,” he said.

“I don’t think another government would come [and get] a completely different result,” Krings added. [...]

He underlined the unity of the EU. “I don’t think the German government will do anything that Ireland does not like,” he said, adding that this was a protective move for the bloc.

“The EU is not in a very positive or good condition either, so that has made it more clear that it was very important for other states to stay together, to have a consensus.”

Krings said that if the UK crashed out of the EU it would be faced with a dilemma with no upsides.

“If you can’t reach a deal soon, I think there’s just a choice between two bad choices for Britain – to leave without a deal, which might risk wrecking the UK economy, or prolonging the Brexit [crisis] which might wreck the UK political system,” he said.

Full article on The Guardian

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