EU sees difficulties ahead of May's key Brexit speech

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EU summit chair Donald Tusk said that "real political difficulties" lie ahead for Brexit after Prime Minister Theresa May gave him a preview of her vision for future trade ties that is expected to unveil on Friday.

Over lunch at her Downing Street office, aides said, May told him a draft Brexit treaty published by the European Union on Wednesday was "unacceptable" in its proposal of keeping Northern Ireland effectively in an EU customs union, potentially isolating the province economically from the British mainland.

Tusk offered a robust defense of the draft, which the EU says is a "backstop" for avoiding a "hard border" that might disrupt peace in Ireland. Before their meeting, he said he would be asking May if she had a better idea for achieving that.

Theresa May, UK prime minister, speaks to Donald Tusk, president of the European Union (EU), during their meeting inside number 10 Downing Street in London, March 1, 2018. /VCG Photo

No details emerged of exactly what May will propose in a speech on Friday for an "ambitious economic partnership" after Brexit. Some ministers have suggested that it can achieve "frictionless trade" between the whole United Kingdom and the EU and avoid the need for a special deal in Ireland.

May's spokesman said her ministers had agreed with her that her speech would be "a real step forward in the negotiations."

However, Tusk has dismissed some of the ideas that many expect to form part of her proposal to maintain close regulatory alignment with the EU in some sectors as being "pure illusion."

On Thursday, he bluntly dismissed the idea that May could avoid hampering trade while pursuing her plan to take Britain out of both the EU customs union and the single market.

"Friction is an inevitable side effect of Brexit. By nature," he told a business conference in Brussels. Over lunch in London, an EU official said, Tusk focused on plans for future ties, talks on which should finally get under way next month after an interim deal on divorce issues was struck in December.

William Lynch, an oyster farmer, poses with his Irish passport at his Culmore point farm, in Lough Foyle Northern Ireland, beside the Donegal border of the Irish Republic, Jan. 15, 2018. /VCG Photo

The EU official called Tusk's lunch with May "an open and honest debate in a good atmosphere about the real political difficulties ahead of us."

After May's speech, Tusk will present an EU negotiating position on post-Brexit relations next week which EU leaders should endorse at a summit on March 22-23.

Also addressing the Business Europe forum in Brussels on Thursday, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier urged company bosses to prepare for Britain's departure and issued a new warning that a status-quo, two-year transition period was not yet agreed and might not be guaranteed for another year.

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Source(s): Reuters