Tag: Andrej Babiš

A humiliating Brexit deal risks a descent into Weimar Britain | Timothy Garton Ash Read more May’s trip follows the EU chief Brexit negotiator insisting there was no difference of opinion in European capitals to exploit. “Anyone who wants to find a sliver of difference between my mandate and what the heads of government say they want are wasting their time, quite frankly,” he told reporters at a joint press conference with the new Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, in Brussels. The British negotiators have become increasingly frustrated with the EU’s attitude to the white paper thrashed out at the prime minister’s country retreat. They feel that it will take an intervention by leaders, most likely at a summit in Salzburg in September, to move the dial in favour of a deal. A number of cabinet ministers have been despatched around EU capitals to make their case for greater flexibility. While Raab insisted that with “political will” a deal on trade and on avoiding a border on the island of Ireland was achievable by a crunch summit in October, Barnier offered a damning verdict on a major element of the UK’s vision of the future. To avoid customs checks after Brexit, the government wants an unprecedented system where the UK would collect EU duties while having the freedom to set different tariffs on goods destined for the British market. We have considered the innovative approaches the EU has taken in the past with other third countries – when the political will has been there.” Barnier offered the UK some cause for hope with regard to its temporary customs proposals, which are designed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland in the period before the final arrangements are ready. The commission’s negotiator conceded that a UK-wide customs plan, avoiding a border in the Irish sea, was the goal, rather than one that simply kept Northern Ireland in the EU’s customs territory. Raab said there needed to be “conditionality” tying the Brexit divorce bill to the deal on future relations.

Theresa May is launching a final pre-holiday push to get her Chequers plan back on track, as one of her former ministers said the EU’s attitude risked the UK facing a choice between a no-deal departure or “final capitulation” to Brussels. A day after Michel Barnier appeared to scupper a key element of the prime minister’s proposal by saying the UK could not collect EU tariffs under a future customs arrangement, May was in Austria for talks with its chancellor,Sebastian Kurz. With May’s Brexit plan rejected, the Tories are stuck | Martha Gill Read more His comments prompted Steve Baker, the former junior Brexit minister turned strong leave voice on the Tory backbenches, to say the EU seemed intent on pushing Britain into a deal involving membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) and customs union. “Chequers was bound to be the beginning of the EU pushing the UK to the unacceptable combination of EEA and customs union membership,” Baker said. “On this road, eventually we will reach a fork between final capitulation or exit with no agreement.” It was, he added, “far better to find the political and administrative will to solve the problems of the UK border with Ireland through an advanced FTA (free-trade agreement)”. At the talks, after which May will begin a holiday in Italy and Switzerland with a brief return to London in between, she will gauge whether individual EU member states could nudge Barnier and his team into taking a different view. But at the Friday press conference, Barnier warned against this: “Anyone who wants to find a sliver of difference between my mandate and what the heads of government say they want are wasting their time, quite frankly.” He was backed up by the Czech Europe minister, Aleš Chmela?, who said on Friday there was a fundamental problem with May’s customs plan, in which the UK and EU would collect any differing tariffs for each other. “There is a clear problem with the fact that the EU will not have a mechanism to control its borders and it would be delegated – without any EU control – to a third country, which would be Britain after March,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “So, that is the key principle. Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, told Business Insider that voters would see such a move as “a complete betrayal by the political class, and I think they would be right”.