U.K. Pushes Citizens' Rights to Advance Brexit Talks -- 5th Update
October 19 2017 - 8:12PM
Dow Jones News
By Jenny Gross, Valentina Pop and Laurence Norman
BRUSSELS -- European leaders rebuffed British Prime Minister
Theresa May's pitch to revive stalled Brexit talks on Thursday, but
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was confident negotiations
would advance by December.
The Brexit talks are running in circles: Officials from the
other 27 European countries say they need more specifics on which
past spending pledges the U.K. will commit to before talks can
progress to Britain's future trade relationship with the EU.
London, however, doesn't want to yield on money until it has
assurances on the shape of Britain's future trading relationship
with the EU.
Over dinner with the other EU leaders, Mrs. May didn't budge on
the issue of money. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said "there
were no new proposals."
Slow progress at what was supposed to be a key moment underlines
how Mrs. May's political weakness is complicating talks, sowing
uncertainty for businesses in the U.K. With less than a
year-and-a-half until the U.K. is expected to leave the bloc, any
failure to reach a deal is likely to cause enormous disruptions for
businesses that rely on unrestricted trade between the U.K. and the
EU. Such a scenario could pose big risks to the U.K. and European
economies.
Delays in negotiations could lead to further headaches for
businesses operating in the U.K. Goldman Sachs Group Chief
Executive Lloyd Blankfein tweeted Thursday that he will "be
spending a lot more time" in Frankfurt after enjoying "great
meetings, great weather" there. He added the hashtag #Brexit.
Goldman Sachs and other international banks in London are
preparing contingency plans for Brexit and lenders are looking at
building up teams in Frankfurt, among other European cities.
Ms. Merkel struck an upbeat note, saying she was confident that
divorce discussions would make enough progress by December for
negotiations to move to a second stage where the two sides discuss
the future trade relationship. But she warned that phase would be
even more complex.
"The good spirit, the good atmosphere of the negotiations will
be maintained," Ms. Merkel said. She said that talks taking longer
than anticipated "doesn't mean we won't continue to work hard to
reach the second stage, which is undeniably going to be more
complicated than the first stage."
However, speaking on her way into the summit on Thursday
afternoon, Ms. Merkel struck an upbeat note, saying she believed
that divorce discussions would make enough progress by December for
negotiations to move to a second stage where the two sides discuss
the future trade relationship.
"I'm confident that we'll be able to advance to phase two in
December," Ms. Merkel said.
Four months into talks, negotiations have been limited to terms
of Britain's departure from the EU: How much money it owes the
bloc, the treatment of three million EU citizens living in the U.K
and the one million Britons living in the EU, and how Brexit will
affect the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the
U.K., and Ireland.
Mrs. May had hoped to move beyond divorce issues to start
negotiating the future trade relationship this month.
On Thursday, she told the leaders of the other 27 European Union
countries that she recognized discussions had been difficult over
the summer but believed her commitment in September to honor the
U.K.'s financial obligations should have been enough to break the
impasse. She appealed to them to help craft a deal that could win
backing at home.
"There is increasingly a sense that we must work together to get
to an outcome we can stand behind and defend to our people," she
told the leaders.
Once Mrs. May leaves the summit Friday, the other EU leaders are
set to agree that they will begin preliminary discussions on the
future trade relationship among themselves so the bloc is prepared
for negotiations with Britain by year-end.
Mrs. May sought to inject new energy into negotiations by saying
Thursday that she wants to make it as easy as possible for EU
citizens in Britain to stay after Brexit. She said Brussels and
London are within "touching distance" of reaching an agreement on
the issue.
But EU diplomats said a number of issues remained outstanding,
including what role the European Court of Justice would play in
protecting the rights of EU citizens living in the U.K. Irish
leader Leo Varadkar also said Britain needs to get more specific on
its ideas for working out smooth border arrangements between
Northern Ireland and Ireland after Brexit.
After poor election results in June, in which Mrs. May's
Conservatives lost their majority in Parliament, Mrs. May has faced
additional pressure from euroskeptics within her cabinet and party
who want her to take a more hard-line approach.
"We understand the domestic difficulties, but that's not our
problem," said one EU official.
Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said Thursday that EU leaders
were frustrated by the slow progress in negotiations. When asked if
officials were preparing for the possibility of not reaching a
deal, he said: "Not yet."
--Emre Peker contributed to this article.
Write to Jenny Gross at jenny.gross@wsj.com, Valentina Pop at
valentina.pop@wsj.com and Laurence Norman at
laurence.norman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 19, 2017 19:57 ET (23:57 GMT)
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