Theresa May says EU countries ‘lining up to oppose’ UK
Community member states meet tomorrow to agree negotiating position and say EU nationals’ rights are key
British prime minister Theresa May has said European Union countries were “lining up to oppose” the UK in its negotiations to leave the EU as she told UK electors only the Tories were tough enough to get a good deal.
Speaking in Leeds after German chancellor Angela Merkel said the UK should ‘not waste time thinking’ it could hold new trade and separation talks at the same time, Mrs May said Britain needed the "strongest possible hand" from the June 8 General Election because “we can see how tough those negotiations are going to be”.
Yesterday Mrs Merkel told German MPs that “all 27 EU member states and institutions agree” the UK could not “benefit from the same rights or better than a member country”.
Her warning that Britain should have “no illusions” about its position outside the EU came just before tomorrow’s EU summit in Brussels to set the community’s negotiating position. It is being held without the UK.
Most recent drafts of the EU agreement have had a new, stronger clause written in on the rights of EU nationals living in the UK. It comes as the UK government has been accused of forcing EU permanent residency applicants to fill in an 85-page form, detailing every trip abroad during their time in the UK.
European Council president Donald Tusk says in his invitation letter for the summit:
“Let me highlight one element of our proposed guidelines, which I believe is key for the success of these negotiations, and therefore needs to be precisely understood and fully accepted.
“I am referring to the idea of a phased approach, which means that we will not discuss our future relations with the UK until we have achieved sufficient progress on the main issues relating to the UK's withdrawal from the EU. This is not only a matter of tactics, but – given the limited time frame we have to conclude the talks – it is the only possible approach.
“Before discussing our future, we must first sort out our past. We need to secure the best guarantees for our citizens and their families. Guarantees that are effective, enforceable, non-discriminatory and comprehensive, and which should be accompanied by simple and smooth administrative procedures.
“We should also agree with the UK that all financial obligations undertaken by the EU of 28 will be honoured also by the UK.
“Finally, in order to protect the peace and reconciliation process described by the Good Friday Agreement, we should aim to avoid a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
“Only once we collectively determine in the European Council that sufficient progress has been made on all these issues, will we be in a position to hold preparatory talks on the future relationship with the UK.
“I would like us to unite around this key principle during the upcoming summit, so that it is clear that progress on people, money and Ireland must come first. And we have to be ready to defend this logic during the upcoming negotiations.”
Mrs May has had her first talks with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier when she dined with him and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday. Her spokesman afterwards said they had been ‘constructive’.
It is not known if they discussed the need for a quick deal on UK nationals’ rights in EU countries but Brexit secretary David Davis told the Prosperity UK conference on Wednesday: “The government has made it very clear it wants to secure the rights of EU nationals living in Britain at the earliest chance in the negotiations.”
