[ad_1]
Brussels (AFP) – European governments began drafting close relations with Britain after Brexit last Monday before meeting to sign their divorce decrees.
Ministers from 27 other EU members gathered in Brussels at the start of what Prime Minister Theresa May calls "an intense week of negotiations" ahead of Sunday's summit.
"A painful week in European politics begins," Austria's Minister for Europe Gernot Blumel, whose country holds the rotating presidency, told reporters.
"We have the divorce papers on the table, 45 years of difficult marriage is about to end."
The British leader announced that she will travel to the city this week to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for last-minute talks.
– A "feasible" agreement –
Neither European leaders nor European leaders want to reopen the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement that was reluctantly approved by the British government last week.
But the two sides are scrambling to finalize a parallel political declaration that will establish a roadmap for post-Brexit negotiations on future EU-UK relations.
"Now that there is a concept withdrawal agreement, we think that it is satisfactory, that it is feasible and that we will now invest our energy in the political agreement", said Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok.
London wants to chart as much as possible the way forward for a free trade agreement, partly to strengthen the support of a British parliament that could still reject the deal.
At the same time, Brussels insists that Britain can not have the same privileged access to the single market as it did as a Member State after the Brexit of 29 March next year.
European negotiators plan to publish Tuesday their version of the statement on future relations.
On Sunday, according to diplomatic sources, the EU ambassadors expanded the document from a little over six pages to about twenty, while further details were approved.
They also discussed an EU proposal to amend the draft withdrawal agreement with a view to extending by two years the planned transition from 21 months after Brexit until the end of the year. end of 2022.
However, no decision has been taken on this and members are afraid to reopen the document and allow British extremists to restart a debate on its terms.
Ministers arriving at Monday's meeting would not be drawn. "He's always open," said Blok.
Blumel said that March 29 would be Brexit Day and that the withdrawal would be approved as is Sunday, while the political declaration would seek to "establish as close a relationship as possible".
Meanwhile, EU Council President Donald Tusk plans to reunite May and his colleagues on November 25 to sign the agreement.
"We now have an intense week of negotiations ahead of us," British leaders said Monday to British business leaders, according to Downing Street.
"Meanwhile, I expect that we will elaborate the complete and definitive details of the framework that will support our future relationship," she said.
"And I am confident that we will be able to reach an agreement with the council that I can bring back to the House of Commons."
– Integrity of the Union –
While the EU-27 and its negotiator, Michel Barnier, remained publicly united during the 17 months of negotiations – the British political camps are at war.
Whether May wins or not an improved future partnership offer this week, she still needs to get the withdrawal agreement in front of Parliament.
Uncompromising Conservatives and May's North Irish trade union allies pledged to vote against the treaty despite the threat of a calamitous Brexit.
And the Labor opposition party, sniffing a chance to overthrow May's government, also warned that its members would not support his agreement.
After making an offer that, in their view, respects Great Britain's willingness to leave but preserves the integrity of the Union, EU officials are surprised by the heated debate.
Publicly, they refuse to intervene in British affairs, but they privately insist that both parties "have exhausted their room for maneuver" in negotiating the divorce.
"Of course, both sides have to adopt the Parliament, which goes for the UK but also for the Europeans," said Blok.
"This political declaration therefore lays the foundation for our future relations and must be ambitious," he added.
Some Member States were upset that their fishing rights in British waters were not guaranteed in the withdrawal agreement and were left for future negotiations.
And Spain is also concerned about the future status of Gibraltar, the British territory on its south coast, a diplomatic source said.
But rumors have remained behind closed doors because, in the words of a European diplomat, the ambassadors agreed to "not pour oil into the British fire".
And about the divorce agreement, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said: "Here he will survive, we are expecting the same situation in London, but here in Brussels he will survive."
