EU Chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, during a press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas | Adam Berry/Getty Images
Chief Brexit negotiator strikes pessimistic tone during speech to German media bosses.
BERLIN — There is “no reason today for optimism” in the Brexit talks, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said, while warning that the next stage of negotiations after a U.K. departure from the EU would be even harder.
Speaking about progress in the negotiations at a summit of German media publishers in Berlin, he gave a downbeat assessment and he warned that resolving the dispute over how to manage the border on the island of Ireland was only one of two problems in the Brexit negotiations.
The second would be clearing a future free trade agreement and deals covering everything from aviation to fisheries and student exchange programs through the bloc’s legislatures. “Each and every one of these arrangements will require ratification by the 27 member states, and even some regions if you remember what happened with CETA,” said Barnier, referring to the EU-Canada trade deal almost scotched by lawmakers in the French-speaking region of Belgium.
“Don’t underestimate the difficulty of ratification,” said Barnier.
He said the EU will push in trade talks to make sure that standards on everything from environmental protection to state aid remain comparable to avoid giving Britain a competitive edge.
“The U.K. and EU will remain neighbors and our companies will continue to compete with each other. Let me be simple and clear, this competition must be fair. The level of ambition of our future FTA [free trade agreement] will clearly depend on [that],” he said.
On the state of current talks, which U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said last week were making “huge progress,” Barnier gave a very different assessment. “I see no reason today for optimism.” But he added that “work will continue at a technical level over the next days.”
“I sometimes say Brexit is a school of patience and determination … We are open to looking at the U.K.’s ideas and proposals,” Barnier added.
The French politician said the EU had no ideological attachment to the backstop arrangement, which Johnson insists must be removed from the Withdrawal Agreement before the end of October. But Barnier added that “concrete solutions” were needed to avoid hard border checks on the Irish border. He did not offer an opinion on written proposals put forward by the British government last week, but described talks with Johnson in Luxembourg earlier this month as “very useful and very cordial.”
Barnier was speaking at an event organized by the Association of German Newspaper Publishers and hosted by the CEO of Axel-Springer, a co-owner of POLITICO Europe.
On Tuesday afternoon, Barnier will meet Economy Minister Peter Altmaier and Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer — both members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union.
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