Cédric SIMON -
With just 41 days until Britain is due to leave the European Union, EU leaders increasingly fear Theresa May is playing a dangerous game of chicken.
Prime Minister May has made a great show of reopening talks with Brussels, but officials say she is playing for time until a no-deal divorce is imminent.
Then, with the economic consequences of a no deal threatening not just Britain but its trading partners on the continent, they expect May to push her anti-Europe MPs to back a lightly-tweaked accord.
It is perhaps a desperate strategy from a leader whose original Brexit plan was defeated by a record margin in her own parliament, and her counterparts in Brussels see it as a reckless one.
And, where once officials and diplomats here spoke cautiously of their frustrations, not wanting to stir up Britain’s domestic drama, they are now sounding the alarm.
After a new Brexit secretary, May’s third in two years, came to Brussels on Monday for yet another inconclusive round of talks, EU Council president Donald Tusk let loose.
“No news is not always good news. EU27 still waiting for concrete, realistic proposals from London on how to break Brexit impasse,” tweeted Tusk, who represents EU leaders.
Tusk’s outburst came after he stirred up Britain’s boisterous press a week earlier by saying leaders of the pro-Brexit campaign deserved a “special place in Hell”.
And Tusk is not the only EU official voicing frustration. This week the normally measured chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier insisted “something has to give” on the British side.
Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel complains the British Brexit camp’s response to everything is “no, no, no” while his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte lashed out Thursday.
“My impression is that the ball is heading towards the precipice and everyone screams to stop, but nobody does anything to stop it, at least, from the British side,” he told several newspapers.
In Brussels, diplomats and officials think May’s do nothing stance is deliberate brinksmanship, an attempt to strengthen her hand both at home in London and in EU talks.
“Her strategy is to get as close as possible to the deadline and to use the fear provoked by the perspective of a no deal to get her parliament to accept a reworked accord,” one said.
“It’s a risky strategy,” the senior European diplomat said, comparing May’s challenge to lawmakers to the fatal game of chicken in James Dean movie Rebel Without a Cause.
Rather than facing down the anti-European, anti-deal wing of her own Conservatives, Brussels would prefer May seek support from the opposition Labour Party’s ranks.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has written to May proposing that he might back a deal that would see Britain stay in the EU customs union indefinitely after Brexit on March 29.
This plan could be included in a political declaration on future ties, meaning European leaders would not have to agree to re-open the withdrawal agreement they signed in November.
Both Tusk and Barnier have dubbed Corbyn’s offer “interesting”, but May appears bent on winning back Tory support rather than reaching out to the equally divided Labour benches.
“The way forward is cross-party, not kicking the can towards a disastrous deal,” pleaded the head of the EU parliament’s Brexit steering committee, Liberal group leader Guy Verhofstad.
May’s tactic, however, has been to demand legal guarantees that Britain will be able to unilaterally quit the so-called Irish backstop clause in the deal — a no-go for Brussels.
“This is politics and in politics, everything is decided close to the deadline,” one senior EU official deeply involved in the non-negotiation negotiations said.— AFP
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