On Wednesday 6 December, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the negotiator-in-chief of the European Union, Michel Barnier, reported back to the College of Commissioners on the progress in negotiations with London on the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.
However, it has not yet been possible for them to note that sufficient progress has been made, a pre-requisite for them to recommend moving to the second phase of negotiations – the trade talks.
On Monday 4 December, Juncker and Theresa May were very close to agreement (see EUROPE 11918), but the British Prime Minister was unable to rally her allies from the DUP party on that day, due to their opposition to Northern Ireland being treated differently from the rest of the United Kingdom.
President Juncker stands ready to receive May on Wednesday evening, Thursday 7 December or later, one source said. He may even rearrange his diary for the first part of next week so that he can meet May if needs be, the source stressed.
On Tuesday 5 December, a diplomatic source said that ideally, this agreement should be reached before Sunday in order to allow the Council to prepare guidelines on the future partnership and transition period following Brexit, which has been scheduled for the end of March 2019. The day before, a different source said that it was possible that Barnier would recommend moving to the second phase of negotiations just ahead of the European Summit, at the meeting of the College of Wednesday 13 December.
In London on Wednesday, May was busy negotiating with the DUP. Also addressing British MPs, she stressed that London and the EU were about to move to the second phase of talks due to the very good progress made. She also said that her government was working towards a solution that would avoid bringing back a physical border on the island of Ireland, in full respect of the integrity of the United Kingdom and protecting the British national market.
On Monday, the two sides were on the point of agreeing on a detailed agreement running to 15 pages. According to this document, which has been revealed by the website Politico, they have still to finalise their positions on the rights of European and British citizens affected by Brexit. The British said that they were prepared to respect the decisions of the Court of Justice before their departure and to develop a system allowing the UK to call for the Court's interpretation in certain cases, but stipulating that its interpretation would not be binding. The UK also hopes to include a sunset clause limiting the number of years the Court will retain its consultative role, but the duration of this has not been clarified.
The EU is calling for the period to be 15 years and the British want it to be as short as possible, according to the co-chair of the Greens/EFA group in Parliament, Philippe Lamberts of Belgium, who the European negotiators consulted along with several other MEPs on Monday morning. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)