“We did not get any decisive progress on any of the principal subjects… we are quite far from being able to say sufficient progress has taken place,” the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told journalists in Brussels today. “There remains some way to go,” echoed the UK’s Brexit secretary, David Davis.
There were no shocks at their joint press conference following the third round of Brexit negotiations. Prospects that the talks might move on by October to discuss the future EU-UK relationship were already dim. We also knew that the ‘divorce bill’ is proving a major stumbling block and that the EU is frustrated by the ambiguity in the UK’s recent position papers.
But what we did glean was a deeper insight into the stalemate on specific issues. Here are three revealing details from the press conference.
1. The EU can’t trust what Britain means by its “obligations” regarding the financial settlement
“In July the UK recognised that it has obligations beyond the Brexit date,” said Barnier. “But this week the UK explained that their obligations will be limited to their last EU budget payment before departure.” The question, he said, is how to build trust before working on a future relationship?
Barnier emphasised that the financial settlement wasn’t just about budget payments. All 28 EU members had promised money to many different non-EU countries, local authorities and other organisations, which have plans in place to spend the funds. Barnier zeroed in on Davis’s use of the term “moral obligations”, saying the UK must honour these longer-term commitments.
2. Home Office immigration gaffes are making a deal on citizens’ rights harder
Barnier went out of his way to mention a recent Home Office error in which over 100 EU citizens received letters telling them they were being deported. What’s more, he said it was “not the first time that something like this has happened”.
It neatly underlined the EU’s view that the rights of its citizens living in the UK needed to be “directly enforceable in front of national jurisdictions under the control of of the European Court of Justice”. This is a red line for the EU that the British government will find hard to erase.
3. Davis insists withdrawal cannot be discussed without considering the future, but Barnier’s hands are tied
These talks aren’t solely about the EU being exasperated with the UK. Davis returned again to the need for “imaginative and flexible” solutions, a phrase he said he was borrowing from the European Council. While many of the UK’s recent proposals have been imaginative to the point of unworkable, there are clearly points where flexibility from Brussels would help. Most obviously, negotiating an inter-Irish border deal cannot readily be disentangled from working out future customs arrangements. As Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said, this is “common sense”.
But Barnier’s hands are tied by his negotiating mandate, which explicitly laid out the sequencing of these talks. Getting all 27 other EU members to agree broad guidelines at the very beginning of negotiations was a good way to ensure unity – and there has been little sign yet of divisions. But the inflexible terms mean Barnier is unable to adapt his tactics without going back to the European Council.
A need for speed?
The EU’s willingness to “step up and intensify” negotiations, as Barnier put it, is a potential game-changer. However, when asked whether he would put in all the time needed to break the deadlock, Davis was more evasive.
As for the spirit of the talks, both men insisted their teams were working hard to reach an agreement. When it was put to him that he seemed frustrated and angry, Barnier demurred. He said he was patient and determined and had “shown the typical calm of a mountaineer”. But the fact remains that time is running out to reach the summit. And the weather, for now, is getting worse.