On Saturday 29 April, the EU27 "unanimously" adopted their guidelines on the Brexit negotiations that will begin in mid-June, following the parliamentary elections in the UK.
The guidelines, which have evolved slightly since they were presented in March, were adopted "in less than four minutes", European Council President Donald Tusk stated at the end of the European summit.
These guidelines set the future political negotiation framework. They will be supplemented with negotiation directives that will form the mandate of the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier. The Commission will unveil these directives on 3 May and the General Affairs Council will adopt them formally on 22 May.
On Saturday, the EU27 showed unwavering unity around the key principles: - a phased approach: the negotiations on the future trade relationship with London will only take place if the EU27 consider enough progress has been made on the terms of the divorce; - priority to the resolution of three core issues linked to citizens' rights, to the balance of accounts on the EU's membership of the EU, and to the issue of Northern Ireland's border.
This unity around the negotiation principles is not a "facade of unity" but a real "common ambition", European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker assured. He did not deny that "a difficult negotiation" is to come, and that maintaining the unity of the EU27 would also be "difficult". Juncker anticipated possible divisions on budget questions with "countries that will not want to pay more and countries that will not want to receive less".
On the issue of citizens' rights, Juncker would like the negotiations to lead not to "sketchy principles but to real guarantees".
The European leaders addressed other concrete issues with Barnier, such as the scenario resulting from no agreement, a European source stated, without giving further detail.
Decision on agencies in autumn
The issue of the two London-based European agencies – the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency – will be a major stake in the negotiations, this time only between the EU27 (see EUROPE 11770).
The heads of state and government are reported to have mentioned this issue only briefly. Juncker and Tusk told the EU27 that they would present a list of criteria in June. "What is sure is that the agencies must remain in the EU. Coreper (the national ambassadors to the EU) will examine the issue once the criteria have been presented and will take a decision before this autumn", Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny stated. French President François Hollande and Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also spoke of a decision in the autumn.
General satisfaction
"We want to have good relations with Great Britain in the future, but we also want to represent our interests. Up to now this has worked extremely well", German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated, rejecting any idea of an anti-British "coalition".
"We underlined the fact that we have common geostrategic challenges to the EU27, that we have common interests on security, that we must work together in NATO. These parameters will be clear in the negotiations", Merkel said. She highlighted the importance of continuing to move forward alongside the Rome (see EUROPE 11754) and Bratislava (see EUROPE 11626) agendas "because the world will continue to go on in the next two years" and because these roadmaps "have exactly the same importance as the negotiations on the withdrawal of Great Britain".
Kenny said he was "happy" with the results: the text adopted on Saturday recognises the specific situations and difficulties of Northern Ireland, and also of Gibraltar and Cyprus. Rajoy stated that any agreement between the UK and EU referring to Gibraltar will first have to obtain Spain's consent.
"What is very important is that the EU27 have been able to show their unity on the two phases" of the future negotiations, Hollande stated, for whom this was the last European summit. He added: "what was essential, was that we could agree on a very simple principle that is valid for both the United Kingdom and any country that would like to leave the EU: this country must not be in a more favourable situation outside the EU than it was inside it. There is always a price, a cost, a consequence of leaving the EU".
The European leaders will meet again in Brussels at the end of June, as the EU27 with the British prime minister, then again as the EU27 – the idea being to discuss the outcome of the European agencies in more detail.
The text of the guidelines can be found at: http://bit.ly/2pIrAHx (Solenn Paulic with Lionel Changeur, Emmanuel Hagry, Pascal Hansens, Elodie Lamer and Sophie Petitjean)