UK Brexit stance not serious, fair or possible, Verhofstadt says

The European Parliament's Brexit coordinator Guy Verhofstadt said the UK's stance on leaving the European Union will not achieve the desired results and defended the bloc's approach to the negotiations.

His comments, in an editorial posted on London-based newspaper The Telegraph late on Thursday, came hours after the third round of talks between Britain's Brexit secretary David Davis and the bloc's chief negotiator Michel Barnier ended in Brussels. The UK is expected to exit the EU in March, 2019.

"UK ministers seem to want to devise a new customs union and seek to recreate all of the EU's structures, in order to continue to benefit from the best elements of the EU, without it being called the EU. This is not serious, fair or even possible given the negotiating time available." 

The UK wants to move talks on to trade but the bloc is seeking to settle terms of the divorce first, specifically how much Britain will pay for commitments made before it leaves, citizens' rights and Northern Ireland's border with the Republic which will become the only UK/EU land frontier.

EU leaders will decide in October if  "sufficient progress" has been made for the talks to move on to where the UK wants to take them. If not, then a decision may not come until December, leaving just over a year to work out a complex trade deal.

Verhofstadt's article was headlined 'For years the EU bent over backwards to please Britain. Now you ask for 'flexibility'.

In his closing remarks on Thursday, the UK's Davis repeated a call for the EU "to be more imaginative and flexible in their approach". He called his country's approach to the talks "substantially more flexible and pragmatic than that of the EU." 

Verhofstadt said that mantra is not supported by the facts.

He said the UK enjoys "bespoke" EU membership, citing opt-outs: of eurozone membership while being the currency bloc's banker; of the Schengen agreement but still getting access to security databases linked to it; from justice and home affairs while being able to opt back into the most effective crime-fighting measures.

"The list goes on," Verhofstadt said. "If this is not showing flexibility, I do not know what is." 

Referring to the financial settlement, how much the UK will pay on leaving the EU, Davis said his government has a duty to British taxpayers to "interrogate it rigorously".

Verhofstadt said the EU's determination to settle that issue, citizens' rights and the Irish question is not a ploy to derail talks.

"It's time for UK politicians to be more honest about the complexities Brexit creates for them to recognise that other governments also have obligations to their own taxpayers." 

(Alistair Holloway, alistair.holloway@wort.lu, +352 49 93 39)