At the end of Monday afternoon on 28 August in Brussels, the respective EU and British negotiators for the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU, Michel Barnier and David Davis, opened the third “Brexit” cycle of negotiations that will end on Thursday, 31 August before the following meeting arranged for 18 September.
The two men, however, demonstrated very different positions. Mr Barnier from France immediately expressed his “concern” over the lack of clarity in the British positions that are preventing any real progress from being made, whilst David Davis called on his counterpart to shows some “flexibility and imagination”.
At the beginning of this new round, Michel Barnier said, “to be honest, I am concerned”. Having welcomed the negotiating papers published by London this summer (see EUROPE 11844, 11845, 11846), the EU negotiator, nonetheless, called on his partners to begin to “seriously negotiate”. He also said that, “We need a position on all the subjects on the separation” and that the papers should be clear in order to enable constructive negotiations. The EU’s negotiator added, “the earlier we get rid of the ambiguities, the earlier we will be able to discuss the future relationship and transition period”. He warned his EU counterpart that the EU27 and European Parliament would not accept a situation in which any of the questions involving separation were not correctly accounted for. Michel Barnier also said he was prepared to step up the calendar of meetings in an effort to facilitate progress.
David Davis defended the work undertaken by his government and promised that he would work towards it an agreement that was mutually beneficial to the EU and United Kingdom. In this regard, he called on the EU to show some flexibility.
Following a meeting opening the cycle on Monday evening, the working group set up on citizens’ rights, financial aspects and other dossiers, was expected to resume its activity on Tuesday morning.
On the budgetary question during this round, the European Union is expecting an oral presentation from the British regarding their position on resolving the “exit bill”, despite the fact that no physical documentation has been published by the British government as yet. The latter acknowledged that it did have legal obligations with regard to the EU in this domain but has still not explained how it intended to tackle this issue.
On Friday 25 August, several European sources indicated that they did not expect any major breakthroughs in this week’s negotiations and continued to highlight the different approaches adopted by the EU and London, particularly with regard to the lack of “substance” in the British positions (see EUROPE 11848). One European source explained, “if you look at where we are and where we should be, there is very big divide” and added that it was, “unlikely that we would make significant progress to overcome this divide”.
Rumours. This new negotiating session also began in a context of rumours, according to which France would be prepared to begin discussions on the future trade agreement, as reported by the British Daily Telegraph newspaper. In a message address to the press on Monday 28 August, however, an official French Presidential source denied the allegations made by this newspaper and claimed that they, “are groundless and not based on any reality”. This same Presidential source added that France, “fully supports the substance, method and negotiating mandate delivered by Michel Barnier".
According to Michel Barnier, it will be necessary to reach a general agreement by October on questions relating to citizens’ rights, budgetary obligations and the Northern Irish border, before moving on to the future trade relationship. On 25 August, European sources explained that although David Davis had accepted this timetable on 19 June during the opening of the negotiations, this commitment now appeared increasingly difficult to respect. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)