The European Union negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, met a second time this week with his British counterpart, Stephen Barclay, and the British Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, on Thursday 21 February. Moreover, further meetings will take place next week, the Commission said at the end of the talks.
Earlier, Mr Barnier had also received Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, who presented his views on the future relationship between the European Union and his country, including a possible continuation of the United Kingdom in a customs union with the EU.
These new exchanges followed those held the day before by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the British Prime Minister, Theresa May. In a joint statement, the two leaders committed to continuing discussions with a view to providing legal guarantees and assurances on the "temporary" nature of the safety net ('backstop') for Ireland. These legal assurances will have to be acceptable to both parties, while the Twenty-seven refuse to reopen the British withdrawal agreement they agreed with Mrs May, but which the British Parliament rejected in mid-January.
The British leader also took note of the letter sent by Presidents Tusk and Juncker on 14 January before the decisive vote in the British Parliament (see EUROPE 12172). This letter already stressed the temporary nature of the ‘backstop’ insurance policy, which would only be applied as a last resort in the absence of a bilateral free trade agreement at the end of 2020.
Mrs May and Mr Juncker also raised the possibility of clarifying the role that alternative arrangements could play in the safety net as well as the possible "additions or amendments" to the political declaration on future bilateral relations appended to the British withdrawal agreement. The two leaders will meet again before the end of February.
For the time being, these exchanges have not yet forged a majority or turned things around in the British Parliament, but the British Finance Minister, Philip Hammond, said on Thursday on the BBC that he was convinced a "breakthrough" would take place in the "next few days".
Timmermans: defending the integrity of the single market
At the CEPS think tank’s Ideas Lab conference (see other news), Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said the Commission was ready to look at the UK’s potential “ideas” for improving the political declaration on future post-Brexit relations between the EU and the UK.
But “we cannot put in jeopardy the integrity of the internal market” by taking the risk that, once the United Kingdom becomes a third country again, goods would be able to enter Ireland without control via Northern Ireland, he said, citing the example of “chlorinated chicken”. He further asserted: “We have to be sure products entering the market can respect EU rules”, and he called on pro-Brexit British MEPs who have adopted a hard-line to take responsibility for preventing a challenge to the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.
As for British participation in the European elections, this will be inevitable if the United Kingdom and the EU extend the Brexit negotiations beyond the election date, according to Mr Timmermans, referring to the opinions of the legal services of the Commission and the Council of the EU along these lines. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Mathieu Bion)