The European Union's chief
negotiator set a target of agreeing a Brexit deal with Britain by October 2018,
assuming London keeps a promise to formally launch the process of leaving the
EU by the end of March.
Michel Barnier, Chief Negotiator for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union, holds a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Michel Barnier, at a news
conference on Tuesday, said the two-year deadline for final withdrawal fixed in
Article 50 of the EU treaty meant there would be less than 18 months for actual
negotiations.
British Prime Minister Theresa
May has said she will give formal notification of Britain's departure in March.
Once a deal is struck, Barnier said, it will take some months to have it
ratified by Britain, the other 27 states and the EU parliament.
"Time is short," he
said. "Should the UK notify the European Council by the end of March 2017
... it is safe to say negotiations could start a few weeks later and an Article
50 agreement reached by October 2018."
May's spokesman said she was
not expecting to negotiate for longer - something that would be possible only
by mutual consent. If no deal is struck, Britain would simply be out of the EU
but with possibly many complex legal loose ends left hanging.
"There is a two-year time
frame," the spokesman said after Barnier's remarks. "We are not
seeking to extend that process."
British Foreign Secretary
Boris Johnson said it was "ample" time. "With a fair wind and
everybody acting in a positive and compromising mood, and I am sure they will,
we can get a great deal for the UK and for the rest of Europe within that time
frame," Johnson told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO
foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday.
Barnier said it was too early
to say whether and how any transition period might be agreed after Brexit to
allow time for negotiations on a future UK-EU relationship. That would depend
on what Britain wants in future and what the EU would accept.
"NO CHERRY-PICKING"
He declined to go into what kind
of relationship would be possible, though he cited the example of Norway, which
accepts free migration and pays the EU in return for access to EU markets.
Asked about measures for the
UK-EU land border that would be created across the island of Ireland, he said
he would try not to harm the 1998 accord that brought peace to Northern
Ireland.
Barnier cited four principles
for negotiations: the 27 would be united; no negotiations before Britain's
notification; Brexit could not be a better deal than staying in the EU; and
London could not keep full market access while keeping out immigrants.
"Cherry picking is not an
option," he said.
Ramming home that message, the EU's dominant leader,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, echoed his language to cheers from her
conservative supporters at a party conference: "We will not allow any
cherry picking," she said in Essen, on the Ruhr.
"The four basic freedoms must be safeguarded -
freedom of movement for people, goods, services and financial market products.
Only then can there be access to the single market."
Asked about debate in Britain over whether to seek a
"hard" or "soft" Brexit, depending on how much market
access to retain, Barnier said: "Frankly, I do not know what a hard or a
soft Brexit are ... I can say what a Brexit is: ... We want a clear agreement;
we want to reach this agreement in the limited time available; we want it to
take account of our point of view."
Barnier, a former French minister who irked many in
London when he was the EU financial services commissioner, opened with a joke
referring to speculation about his English language skills and his preference
for holding negotiations in French.
"English or French?" he asked as he took the
podium. He used both, though answered questions mainly in French. He also
ventured a pop culture reference in English, summing up his message to London
as: "Keep calm and negotiate."
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and
Marilyn Haigh; writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Mark Heinrich)
No comments:
Post a Comment