Franco-German Brexit Stance Is Said to Have Broad EU Support

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Germany and France insist they’re not alone in refusing British pleas to move ahead with Brexit talks, as they lay the blame for the impasse with Prime Minister Theresa May’s government.

Officials in Berlin and Paris said their stance in negotiations is no tougher than that of other member states. Even though the bloc’s positions have been unanimously agreed, there is a concern in the German government that some countries are hiding behind Germany as the stalemate persists, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named.

French officials said that they are not willing to engage in a technical negotiation with May’s government, as that is the job of the bloc’s negotiator Michel Barnier. The mandate given to Barnier envisages a clear sequencing of the talks and shouldn’t be fragmented, the officials said. The U.K. wants his mandate to be expanded to allow discussions at least on the transition arrangement that its businesses are calling for.

A statement of EU’s 27 remaining states on Friday will conclude that “sufficient progress” hasn’t been made in separation talks to allow for trade negotiations to begin. The wording in the latest draft is tougher than a previous iteration, as it includes an explicit reference to the role of the European Court of Justice– a red line for May. It also deletes a phrase that the EU should be “fully ready” for a start in trade negotiations in December.

While an official involved in the negotiations said on Friday that the communique’s language would be tightened at the request of Germany and France, the officials in Berlin and Paris said that there’s full consensus among the 27 about the current state of Brexit talks. The French officials also cited Barnier’s assessment that not enough progress has been made.

On the U.K. side, officials are growing increasingly frustrated by the refusal of the EU to budge, increasing the prospect of a messy breakdown in talks.

Barnier is briefing the bloc’s European affairs ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, where the wording of the draft statement may be finalized. “That’s one of the things that makes the negotiation process a bit difficult because at the moment the EU27 is unanimous than the U.K., so that’s one of the main problems here,” Finland’s State Secretary Samuli Virtanen said before the meeting.

May, weakened by an election debacle in June, is struggling to keep her Cabinet on message and needs to navigate a middle path between the pro-Brexit camp that includes Boris Johnson and her Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, who channels the voice of business.

The EU has asked the U.K. to table concrete proposals, elaborating on the concessions May signaled in her speech in Florence last month. But Britain has refused to do so, the German officials said. The view in Berlin is that May’s government is maneuvering at the moment, which means that there’s no reason for the EU to offer concessions, the officials said.