U.K. Pushes Citizens' Rights to Advance Brexit Talks -- 2nd Update
19 October 2017 - 2:53PM
Dow Jones News
By Jenny Gross, Valentina Pop and Laurence Norman
BRUSSELS--British Prime Minister Theresa May will Thursday make
a pitch to European Union leaders on guarantees for EU citizens
living in the U.K., hoping to revive stalled Brexit talks by
shifting the focus away from a deadlock over money.
But European officials say her words won't be enough to break
the impasse. Negotiations are running in circles: Officials from
the other 27 European countries want more specifics on how much the
U.K. is willing to pay as part of its divorce settlement before
talks can progress to Britain's future trade relationship with the
EU but London doesn't want to yield on money until it has
guarantees on Britain's future trading relationship.
Slow progress at what was supposed to be a key moment shows how
Mrs. May's political weakness is hampering talks, sowing
uncertainty for businesses in the U.K. With less than a
year-and-a-half until the U.K. is expected to leave the bloc, any
failure to reach a deal is likely to cause enormous disruptions for
businesses that rely on unrestricted trade between the U.K. and the
EU. Such a scenario could pose big risks to the U.K. and European
economies.
Several months into talks, negotiations have been limited to
terms of Britain's departure from the EU: How much money it owes
the bloc, the treatment of three million EU citizens living in the
U.K and the one million Britons living in the EU, and how Brexit
will affect the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of
the U.K., and Ireland. Mrs. May had hoped to move beyond divorce
issues to start negotiating the future trade relationship this
month.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday there had been
encouraging progress on Brexit talks, but not enough to move talks
forward this month. She said she was confident, however, that talks
would progress to the next phase by December.
With her offer on rights for EU citizens, Mrs. May is seeking to
inject new energy into the process during a two-day summit of EU
leaders, enabling talks to move to trade and Britain's two-year
transitional arrangement out of the bloc. In a letter to EU
nationals living in the U.K., Mrs. May wrote that she wants to make
it as easy as possible for them to stay and that Brussels and
London are within "touching distance" of reaching an agreement on
the issue.
Mrs. May, arriving at the summit, said the leaders would discuss
the progress made in Brexit negotiations and set plans for the
weeks ahead. "I particularly, for example, want to see an urgency
in reaching an agreement on citizens' rights," she said.
But EU diplomats said a number of issues remained outstanding,
including what role the European Court of Justice would play in
protecting the rights of EU citizens living in the U.K.
Outgoing Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said negotiations
needed to pick up the pace. "There are so many open issues. We have
to come to solutions now," he said.
Beyond the issue of EU citizens, the U.K. and the EU are
furthest apart on the issue of money, a senior EU diplomat said.
"Is it a question of Europe accelerating the talks? No, the ball is
still in the British court," the official said.
British officials said Mrs. May won't budge on the issue of
money at the summit. After poor election results in June, in which
Mrs. May's Conservatives lost their majority in Parliament, Mrs.
May has faced additional pressure from euroskeptics within her
cabinet and party who want her to take a more hard-line
approach.
"We understand the domestic difficulties, but that's not our
problem," an EU official said. The official said the EU needed more
specifics on how much the U.K. was willing to pay each year as part
of its settlement.
The next opportunity for talks to advance is an EU summit
planned for December. An EU diplomat said ahead of this week's
summit that even December may be too early for talks to move on to
the next stage. "It's 50-50 in my view," the official said.
For talks to advance by year-end, Mrs. May must put recent
commitments into official negotiating positions, said European
Council President Donald Tusk, who represents EU leaders. He said
he didn't expect a breakthrough at the summit.
Emre Peker contributed to this article.
Write to Jenny Gross at jenny.gross@wsj.com, Valentina Pop at
valentina.pop@wsj.com and Laurence Norman at
laurence.norman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 19, 2017 09:38 ET (13:38 GMT)
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