European negotiator for British divorce, Michel Barnier, condemns attempts by London and Brussels to circumvent them in his recently published newspapers
The European Union’s greatest achievement during the negotiations for the UK’s withdrawal (2018-2019) and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (2020) was maintaining the unity of the 27 states amid continued attempts by London to share them. The “secret Brexit diary” just published by Michel Barnier, the European negotiator in both trials, shows, however, that the maneuvers of the governments of Theresa May and Boris Johnson were several times on the verge of achieving their goal. to break the unity of the EU. Barnier feared more than once that the European Commission would start negotiations with London in parallel with its own negotiations and even Brussels would sacrifice the fisheries sector for a beneficial trade deal.
Barnier’s Diary (titled The great illusion. Secret Brexit diary, Gallimard Verlag) is published just 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 hand over. And to claim a notoriety that some analysts interpret as the prelude to his possible candidacy as President of France, as he could challenge Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen for the presidency in the May 2022 elections.
The secret memory of Brexit is made up of hundreds of stitches without a thread among others with acupuncture precision. Barnier’s needle, apparently harmless, leaves a trace, at least the very Brexiters You will know how to decrypt it like it was an encrypted message.
Barnier reports how he had to stop the cabinet of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during the last phase of the trade agreement in order to open a parallel negotiation in order to bridge the apparent inflexibility of Barnier. “The negotiations are on the verge of derailing,” warned Barnier the Von der Leyen team in one of the most tense moments among European negotiators. Barnier adds that his threat had an impact and was immediately understood in the President’s office: “I will not accept these methods.”
It was raining for Barnier when it was wet because he had already tried to negotiate the London exit agreement with the then Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. “It has become commonplace for Martin Selmayr [jefe de Gabinete de Juncker] Try out your own contacts in parallel [con los negociadores británicos]“Barnier notes with obvious resentment. Barnier is convinced that “the British will play their cards two tables right from the start and try to open a second line of negotiations with Martin Selmayr. And I see that he does not resist… ”.
But perhaps the most delicate point for the negotiator was the last stretch when quotas for the fishing sector in British waters became the final bargaining chip between Ursula Von der Leyen and Boris Johnson. As the December 31 abyss approached, the deadline to avoid an abrupt end to the Brexit transition period, the temptation to sacrifice fishing quotas seems to be mounting.
“It’s not just about a few mackerel, as I heard one day say,” muses Barnier, who says he doesn’t always feel understood by the president’s cabinet. And Barnier has twice opposed Von der Leyen’s proposals, which the negotiator believes could have cornered EU fishing countries instead of the UK, according to his newspaper.
The agreement came about even though Barnier had previously examined the proposal submitted by the British Von der Leyen. “A text full of fraud, false commitments and regression,” is how Barnier describes the London proposal before it was changed. On Christmas Eve, Barnier coldly said goodbye to British negotiator David Frost. “He knows that I know that he tried to circumvent me until the last moment by trying to open a parallel line of negotiations with President Ursula von der Leyen’s cabinet. And he knows that this was inconclusive. “
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 notes. “Lack of realism,” he adds. And he assures: “It has always been foolish for a large country like the UK to conduct negotiations and decisions of this magnitude, which are so important for its future, without a clear vision or a majority to reach them in the EU support government and parliament. ”.
Barnier tiptoes past the threat of a veto by the Pedro Sánchez government on the deal if an alleged reference to Gibraltar, added by the British at the last minute, is not resolved. “”[Los españoles] You see in this article a British maneuver and a trap that we would have got caught in because of a lack of vigilance, ”said the European negotiator after saying that neither the legal services of the Commission nor that of the Council share Madrid’s interpretation. Barnier believes that the “drama”, the term in quotes used to describe the incident, only responds to a desire for revenge “for the humiliation of London” that exploited Spain’s accession to the EU in 1986 to consolidate its sovereignty Rock.
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