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Brussels (AFP) – The European Union is ready to extend Brexit's post-divorce transition period of one year to give more time to reach a trade agreement, diplomats said Wednesday. A difficult summit.
Prime Minister Theresa May is due to visit Brussels later today to address the 27 other European leaders on the pending negotiations for a divorce deal to get Britain out of the Union .
Discussions are stalled on the issue of legal support to maintain the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after leaving the UK on March 29 – but the negotiator from the EU, Michel Barnier, has an idea.
According to two European diplomats, Barnier is ready to add a year to the 21-month transition period following Brexit – by the end of 2021 – to offer more space to conclude a trade deal. .
This offer would not in itself solve the problem of the back end, which must be settled in the Brexit Treaty, which must be ratified before March to avoid a damaging scenario of "no agreement".
But this extension would give more time to agree on new trade relations between the EU and the UK and avoid the need for separate plans for Northern Ireland, which London is fiercely opposed to.
Diplomats said that Barnier had revealed his offer to EU ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg on Wednesday.
With the offer on the table, Europe is seeking to put pressure on May so that she will come to Brussels with her own ideas.
"I will ask Prime Minister May if she has concrete proposals to break the stalemate," said EU President Donald Tusk.
But May, surrounded by opponents of her own party and even of her own cabinet, did not make such proposals.
– delicate divorce –
The opening choreography of Wednesday's summit highlights British isolation.
May will meet Tusk at 17:45 (15:45 GMT) before briefing her 27 European colleagues, but the other European leaders will then leave to discuss Brexit without her.
Tusk said that if May and Barnier do not show signs of concrete progress towards a draft agreement, he will not convene a summit in November to sign it.
Instead, the issue could either be postponed to December, or, more dramatically, that the EU could take advantage of the November weekend to meet on the preparations for a "Brexit without agreement".
Earlier, both parties had agreed that Britain's withdrawal from the Union on March 29 without a divorce agreement or a roadmap for future relations would be an economic and diplomatic disaster.
However, after Britain's refusal to accept an undefined "legal" backing to prevent the return of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, doubts are emerging.
"I think we are close to a" no-deal ", warned Konrad Szymanski, Polish Minister for European Affairs, at the end of a pre-summit meeting with his European counterparts at the summit. Luxembourg.
Back in Brussels, a severe Tusk said that he had "no reason to be optimistic," according to a report released Tuesday by Barnier and May's appearance in parliament on Monday. .
The main disagreement between London and Brussels concerns the maintenance of the Irish border after Brexit, but May is also fighting with his own deputies, who must ultimately approve the final divorce agreement.
At a three-hour cabinet meeting Tuesday morning, which included ministers with reservations about its strategy, May said an agreement would be possible if they remained united.
"I am convinced that if we, as a government, remain united and firm, we will be able to achieve this," she said, according to her spokeswoman.
– No business plans –
Speaking to MPs in the House of Commons on Monday, May had stated that an agreement was "workable" while remaining true to its principles on the Irish border issue.
But a senior European official said the speech only made Barnier aware of the relentless struggle he was facing to reach an agreement.
To resolve the Irish issue, Britain has proposed to remain aligned with EU customs rules until the signing of a broader trade agreement, thus avoiding the need for border controls. .
But his own eurosceptic conservative MEPs demand that this "arrangement" of support be limited in time, which the EU will not accept.
May said that the EU also insisted on its own "support" in case the London proposal would not work, which would allow Northern Ireland to remain aligned with the Customs Union and the single market.
She says this would threaten the integrity of the UK – and her Northern Ireland allies of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) strongly oppose it.
Economists fear not to trade Brexit, which would significantly disrupt the trade, travel and supply chains of manufacturers in Europe, push Britain to the recession and even have consequences at the global level.
On Tuesday, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned that a "messy Brexit" would slow the economy of the EU as a whole and would impact US banks.
