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Angela Merkel warned the British government that the 21-month Brexit transition period will not be long enough if the terms of a future trade deal with the UK are not clear and concrete over the next eight weeks.
In a speech to industrialists, the German Chancellor has lent her support to French President Emmanuel Macron, who wants to avoid a vague political declaration on the terms of a future agreement.
This measure means that the British Parliament will not be under any illusions about the limits of the future agreement that the British Prime Minister strikes before his significant vote, a blow for those who have hinted that a "blind Brexit" could allow Theresa May to fend for herself.
European leaders fear that the parameters and limits of the future deal with the United Kingdom will not be clearly defined, so negotiations after the Brexit will be prolonged and disordered.
At the moment, an agreement on the framework of an agreement will be decided by a qualified majority of the Member States and, after Brexit, each capital will have a veto right.
Macron and Merkel also worry that the Eurosceptic movements may exploit an ambiguous political declaration agreed before the elections to the European Parliament in May and be able to put forward the benefits offered to people leaving the bloc.
It is understood that the recent suggestion of the Secretary of the Environment, Michael Gove, that the United Kingdom could change its approach after March 29, 2019, has been alarming in the capitals of the EU.
Merkel said the terms had to be concretely defined in the speech delivered to German industrialists in Berlin.
She told business leaders that the goal was to "formulate future relations with the UK as concretely as possible". She said that otherwise the transition period would become "very quickly too short" to conclude what might be a "very intensive" round of negotiations.
"I think playing with time does not help the business world either, because the business world needs clarity," Merkel said. "We have six to eight weeks of hard work ahead of us to make the political decisions. Much depends on what Britain really wants.
Merkel reiterated the rejection of Checkers' proposals, saying that UK leaders "can not belong to one part of the EU common market but not to the other three".
She said an agreement "could already be achieved in October" before an agreement is signed at an EU summit scheduled for mid-November.
The Chancellor's intervention came as EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier privately told MEPs that the talks were now "frozen".
The head of the Greens in the European Parliament, Philippe Lamberts, who attended the meeting, said: "I asked him a question about a Brexit at the edge of the cliff, and I had the impression of a consensus very strong. [among EU leaders] that they would attack at the edge of the cliff to the detriment of the single market.
In addition, the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said he would seek to minimize the damage caused by a Brexit without a transaction, but said that this would be a bad result for the UK, involving the "pain".
Roberto Azevêdo said at the same conference in Berlin that "there will clearly be an impact, and it will not be a good one", but that the role of the WTO would be "to try to minimize the negative effects it will have ".
He added, "If we can minimize the disruption, if we can minimize the pain … that's what we will try to do."
