Bill Carmichael: Ignore the EU bluster over Brexit talks

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Propagated by the EU side – and their treacherous Remoaner allies in the UK – this had it that whereas the EU negotiators were skilled and seasoned operators, the UK team were little short of a bunch of buffoons who had no idea what they were doing.

To put it shortly – they were going to run rings around us.

Well, it hasn’t quite worked out that way, evidenced by the increasingly tetchy and irritable press conference appearances by the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Perhaps it is slowly dawning on the EU side that all the cards are stacked in the UK’s favour and their bluster has been recognised for what it is.

We had a sign of things to come back in May this year when selective details of a private dinner in Downing Street between Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker were immediately leaked to a German newspaper.

British officials were left aghast at such damaging and unprofessional behaviour. It demonstrated not just bad faith right at the start of negotiations, but a rather juvenile obsession with point scoring.

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These were supposed to be serious talks among grown ups, not silly student union maneuverings. Since then Barnier has demonstrated little other than a rigid inflexibility alongside comments that make little sense.

For example last month Barnier suggested that Britain’s security would be damaged once we leave the EU. This is simply preposterous. As is widely acknowledged, even in Brussels, the British have some of the most effective intelligence services on the planet and the GCHQ listening station is an absolutely vital tool in the fight against terrorism sweeping the continent.

Are our European allies seriously going to cut themselves off from such a valuable security asset just because Monsieur Barnier is having a bit of a strop?

Of course, we share intelligence with friendly countries around the world, such as the US and Australia, without submitting to a common government.

There is simply no reason on earth why effective intelligence sharing cannot continue between the UK and the EU once we regain our independence.

Barnier has stubbornly stuck to the premise that talks on trade cannot begin until three things have been sorted out: the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic; the rights of EU citizens in the UK and finally, the so-called “divorce bill” of up to 100 billion euros that the EU is demanding we pay.

On the first two issues the UK has put forward sensible, workable solutions guaranteeing a frictionless border and making a hugely generous offer to EU citizens. The reaction of the EU side has been for Juncker to sniff that none of the British position papers are “satisfactory”, without explaining why.

As for the divorce bill, British negotiators this week presented a closely argued 11-page document scutinising the EU’s claims for British cash. Based on a rigorous analysis of the EU treaties the conclusion, apparently, is that we are not legally obliged to pay the EU a single bean.

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That could be the end of the argument. But the British government – again in a spirit of generosity and compromise – has offered to pay something. But not unreasonably we want to know what we are paying for – in other words the talks on trade have to run alongside the “divorce bill” negotiations. The EU’s demand that we pay a whopping bill up front, and then find out what we have paid for at a later date, is simply daft.

The main problem here isn’t the technical difficulties of striking a deal – they are easily solved. A bigger obstruction is the attitude of many in Brussels that the UK must be punished for daring to leave. But the point of any trade deal is that it is mutually beneficial to both sides. By attempting to damage Britain, the EU will damage itself. They are cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

Luckily the saboteurs in Brussels won’t get it all their own way – powerful German industrialists will see to that.

This week in a hugely significant contribution, the influential Association of German Chambers of Commerce (DIHK) bluntly told Brussels to get cracking on the trade talks.

We owe it both to the British people and the millions mired in poverty and unemployment in the moribund EU to strike a trade deal as soon as possible.

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