MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
EU-27 meet in Brussels to discuss joint strategy for UK Brexit negotiations
European Union countries are meeting in Brussels to discuss a joint strategy for negotiations with the UK over Brexit. Twenty-seven countries will be present, but the UK will not take part. The EU will insist that progress must be made in talks on separating the UK from the EU, before any discussions can begin about future trade relations. Official talks between London and the EU will not begin until after the UK general election on 8 June. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rules“Before discussing our future, we must first sort out our past“
Apr 29th, 2017 - 11:49 am - Link - Report abuse -1“There is no free lunch. Britons must know that,”
Well, I think that settles all hope for the Anglos... :(
Meanwhile, the Great British Capitulation of 2017 - 2018 has begun:
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/eu-says-already-europe-1-210000310.html
“The British have been on a steep learning curve when it comes to what the red lines are and what they can reasonably expect to achieve,” said Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform. “The EU has been remarkably consistent over the last couple of months when it comes to its position.”
”There’s not even a telephone number in the U.K. to call when a problem arises, one EU diplomat said on Friday.“
”The British premier has already run into the EU’s phalanx. She was rebuffed when she suggested in October that she had given enough insight into her plan for the EU to open informal talks, while an early proposal to settle the issue of citizens’ rights was rejected.
Since she triggered two years of talks in March, May has seemed to dilute her stance on several occasions. She appeared to accept that the U.K. would still need some EU oversight and free movement of labor through any post-Brexit transition and that any trade deal won’t be signed until after it’s left the bloc.
May also refused to rule out continuing to make payments into the EU budget and she talks less about no deal being better than a bad deal, or of turning her country into a tax-haven if she fails to get her way.
What’s more, Brexit Secretary David Davis this week gave the clearest signal yet that the British government does not expect to get everything it wants. “We will have difficult issues to confront,’’ he said. “Compromise will be necessary on both sides.”
The British have been PWNED so far. A well-oiled economic and diplomatic superpower on one side of the table, vs recently escaped pirates with delusions of grandeur on the others.
Very funny!
Well our world renowned political and historically inept guru has spoken again.
Apr 30th, 2017 - 09:05 am - Link - Report abuse +1Two European elections (France and Germany) to be decided this year. It may go badly for EU unity...who knows.
The EU will have to compromise as will the UK. To think that either side will triumph is nonsense.
“recently escaped pirates”....what has Argentina got to do with this? Your piratical attempt to seize the Falklands was well and truly rebuffed.
If the UK is such a hell-hole, why are there millions of EU citizens desperate to settle and work here. If, as you predict by your tarot cards or rune stones, that the UK falls into terminal decline, why are these people not leaving in droves ?
Our bottom line could be turning the UK into a tax haven and screwing the EU finances if they intend to screw us.
I didn't say you are a he!!hole, I just said that on a diplomatic level you are 10 levels above your league here, and it is painfully showing.
Apr 30th, 2017 - 02:42 pm - Link - Report abuse -1Where is the diplomacy in the EU ? They will tell the UK what they will have to do...no negotiations. By the way, thank you for your complement although it's higher than I would expect.
Apr 30th, 2017 - 08:48 pm - Link - Report abuse +1The UK is 10 levels above our league here....I would have modestly said about 2 to 3.
If you make ambiguous statements expect a reply not to your liking.
We are used to fighting against greater odds...it's a national characteristic.
It's one thing to fight against greater odds, it's another to be a fool.
May 01st, 2017 - 03:48 am - Link - Report abuse -1When almost everything single publication is saying the UK is way over it's head here, including Forbes/Fox, hardly a pro-EU anti-British outlet, with the head line “the UK is is completely deluded about Brexit”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/92bb0b2c-0f59-355f-a64e-888e9cc5edd9/ss_the-uk-government-is.html
... I mean at what point do you start to at least open to the possibility that indeed, it looks grim. And it's not so much because the UK could not get on with it outside the EU. It can and probably will, but one could choose to make the transition smoother, or to make it a train wreck. And thanks to the total and shocking lack of preparation for this eventuality by the UK even before the referendum (I mean if you are holding a referendum the least you can do is prepare for both outcomes), and then afterwards the complete denial from the Brexiters that the UK has somehow a supwerpower status in these negotiations, all mean that as almost every news outlet and commentary journal has said, the UK government is anywhere but on Earth. (well I said that long ago).
Sometimes you have to fight against greater odds...or capitulate. I don't think the country is in a mood to capitulate.
May 01st, 2017 - 09:14 am - Link - Report abuse +1If you think that we may be screwed by the EU because they are so adept at diplomacy....it is possible. However, it will cause such a feeling of dissent in the UK that we will probably try to get our own back against individual members. You can see how it could affect Spain.
Also, do you seriously think that the UK will look fondly to any requests for assistance either militarily or diplomatic from EU members in times of tension ? If we are on our own, so are they.
As for demands for £60 billion to leave the club....get stuffed.
The EU is a club which discriminates against world trade. Poorer countries cannot get to sell their products here without tariffs.
Our ex Caribbean colonies could not get their bananas into the EU while French colonies...in Africa.. could by the simple expedient of saying they were part of France.
Anyway, I think the EU is in for a big shake up over and above Brexit and will evolve as a different animal or else it's weight of bureaucracy will make it collapse.
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