The greatest achievement of the European Union during the negotiations for the exit of the United Kingdom (2018-2019) and the trade and cooperation agreement (2020) was the maintenance of the unity of the 27 states in the face of continuous attempts by London to divide them. But the “secret Brexit diary” just published by Michel Barnier, European chief negotiator in both cases, reveals that the maneuvers of the governments of Theresa May, first, and Boris Johnson, later, were close to achieving their objective. . break the unity of the EU. Barnier feared on more than one occasion that the European Commission would launch negotiations with London in parallel to his own, and even that Brussels would sacrifice the fishing sector in the name of a profitable trade deal.
Barnier’s diary (titled The great illusion. Brexit secret diary, Editor Gallimard) is published a few months after the 2020 Christmas Eve agreement between Brussels and London, which ended a 1,600-day negotiation triggered by the 2016 Brexit referendum. The work serves Barnier to turn the page. And claim a notoriety that some analysts interpret as the prelude to his possible candidacy for the presidency of France, since he could challenge Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen for the presidency in the May 2022 elections.
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The secret memory of Brexit is made up of hundreds of points without a line next to others with acupuncture precision. Barnier’s needle, apparently harmless, leaves a trace that, at least, the same Brexiters they will know how to decrypt it as if it were an encrypted message.
Barnier records how, during the final leg of the trade deal, he had to stop the office of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, tempted to open a parallel negotiation to overcome Barnier’s apparent inflexibility. “The negotiation is about to go off the rails,” Barnier warned Von der Leyen’s team at one of the most tense moments among European negotiators. Barnier adds that his threat became effective and was immediately understood in the president’s office: “I will not accept these methods.”
For Barnier, it was raining on rain because during the negotiation of the London exit agreement he had already tried the same with then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. “It has already become a habit for Martin Selmayr [jefe de Gabinete de Juncker] test your own contacts in parallel [con los negociadores británicos]”Barnier observes with evident resentment. Barnier is convinced that “from the beginning, the British played their cards at two tables and sought to open a second line of negotiations with Martin Selmayr. And I see that he cannot resist… ”.
But perhaps the most delicate point for the chief negotiator was the final leg, when quotas for the fishing sector in British waters became the last bargaining chip between Ursula Von der Leyen and Boris Johnson. As the abyss of December 31 approached, a deadline to avoid the abrupt end of the Brexit transition period, the temptation to sacrifice fishing quotas seems to be growing.
“It’s not just about some mackerel, as I heard one day say,” reflects Barnier, who says he doesn’t always feel understood by the president’s office. And Barnier resists twice, according to his newspaper, Von der Leyen’s proposals that, in the negotiator’s opinion, could have cornered the EU fishing countries instead of the United Kingdom.
The agreement was reached, although Barnier had previously analyzed the proposal made by the British to Von der Leyen. “A text full of traps, false commitments and setbacks,” Barnier describes the London proposal before it is amended. On Christmas Eve, with the deal closed, Barnier coldly says goodbye to British negotiator David Frost. “He knows that I know that until the last moment he tried to circumvent me, trying to open a parallel negotiation line with the office of President Ursula von der Leyen. And you know it was not conclusive. “
Throughout the text, the European negotiator continues to express his surprise and amazement at the apparent lack of preparation on the British side, especially under the first negotiator, David Davis. “The British speak for themselves,” he observes. “Lack of realism,” he adds. And he assures: “It has always seemed silly for a large country like the United Kingdom to carry out a negotiation and a decision of such magnitude, so important for its future, without having a clear vision or a majority that supports it in the Government and Parliament. . ”.
Barnier tiptoed forward the threat of a veto that the Pedro Sánchez government represented to the agreement if an alleged reference to Gibraltar added by the British at the last minute was not clarified. «[Los españoles] They see in this article a British maneuver and a trap in which we would have fallen due to a lack of vigilance, ”points out the European negotiator after specifying that neither the legal services of the Commission nor that of the Council share Madrid’s interpretation. Barnier believes that “drama”, which is used in quotation marks to describe the incident, only responds to the desire for revenge “for the humiliation of London”, which took advantage of Spain’s entry into the EU in 1986 to consolidate its sovereignty over the cliff.
Interminable
The long story evokes a global background that ranges from the political dystopia of Donald Trump’s presidency in the United States to the medieval and digital lockdown caused by the pandemic. On both sides of the English Channel, events also continued. Three prime ministers have passed through Downing Street since 2016 (David Cameron, May and current Johnson) and in four years there have been three elections in the UK, including strange and unexpected ones for the European Parliament when it has reached a agreement to leave the EU. already closed but not ratified.
In Brussels, there was a change in the entire community leadership (Von der Leyen replaced Jean-Claude Juncker at the head of the Commission and Charles Michel replaced Donald Tusk as the presidency of the European Council). And several capitals changed governments during the negotiation, including Paris, Madrid and Rome (three prime ministers passed through there).
The feeling of an endless Brexit is corroborated by the many personal vicissitudes of both negotiating teams. Several members, including Barnier and Frost, experienced COVID-19 and, like so many millions of Europeans, had to get used to working through an interposed screen, something that the Frenchman acknowledges causes him some fatigue.
Barnier was a grandfather for the first time and his frustrated aspirations to chair the European Commission were left behind. Among the leaders of his team (60 people from 17 countries) there was time to celebrate the birth of five babies. “The team is quite young and that allows a good average, with the age of the captain!”, Brinca Barnier, who was 65 when the Brexit referendum was held and now, at 70, can dream of Eliseu.
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