Donald Tusk has said that Theresa May’s Chequers proposals for dealing with the Irish border and future trade relations after Brexit will need to be “reworked and further negotiated” in a sign of how far the UK and EU are from resolving the most fraught issues in the divorce talks.
Opening the EU summit in Salzburg, Tusk, the European council president, said the Brexit talks were entering a decisive phase and that “various scenarios” were still possible – a clear hint that no-deal remained a possibility if no acceptable resolution to the negotiations could be reached.
Tusk said that some of May’s Chequers proposals “indicated positive evolution” and highlighted the “among other things, the readiness to co-operate on security and foreign policy”.
But in a blow to the British prime minister the EU leader said that was not the case “on other issues, such as the Irish question, or the framework for economic co-operation, where the UK proposals will need to be reworked and further negotiated”.
Tusk confirmed there would be a special European summit in November, which is intended to be when Brexit negotiations end, and tried to add a note of urgency in conclusion, saying: “There is more hope but there is surely less and less time, every day left we must use for talks.”
Meanwhile David Davis has predicted that Theresa May will have to “reset” her stance on Brexit because she will not be able to get her Chequers plan through parliament.
The former Brexit secretary said there were signs Brussels was softening its stance on Northern Ireland, but he warned that EU negotiators would “pile on extra requests” in other areas in the coming weeks before agreeing a deal with the UK.
The prime minister’s warning earlier this week that parliament would have to choose between a version of her Chequers plan or no deal was a false choice, Davis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said: “What may well happen is that they pile on extra requests, demands, money, migration, you name it ... Angela Merkel said you must be seen to suffer. All these things will come back and we’ll see more and more pressure. And she’ll have a deal which she won’t be able to bring back to the House of Commons because it will be lumbered with loads of other EU demands. So she’s going to have to have something else.”
Davis predicted that May would have to change tack to avoid the prospects of exiting the EU with no deal. “The time when the decision has got to be taken are going to November, when it is really threatening. Everybody is afraid of no deal, then there will be a point at which it will be possible to reset … there will be other deals on the table at that point.”
He added: “The reset is to step back to what Donald Tusk offered in March. He said you can have a free trade agreement.”
Citing EU trade deals with Canada and South Korea, Davis said: “It is possible. Indeed it is almost possible off the shelf.”
He urged May to use the £39bn divorce settlement agreed last year as a bargaining chip to get a better deal than that proposed in the Chequers plan. He said: “We have a negotiating lever. We have 39bn of them, the £39bn contribution we are going to make in the withdrawal agreement. Once we have signed that away our negotiating leverage evaporates.”
On Tuesday, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the bloc was ready to improve its proposal on avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland. The border issue was the “one area where I think the EU is softening”, Davis claimed.
He pointed out that Barnier appeared ready to accept checks away from the border after ruling them out earlier this year. “Those are the very methods you use to cure the problem of the hard border in Northern Ireland itself,” Davis said.
Davis also dismissed the growing clamour for a people’s vote on the final deal. He said: “To announce a second referendum would be to invite the European Union to give us the worst deal possible in order to persuade us to stay in.
“That’s the consequence of a second referendum and is why it is very bad idea. It is completely against the national interest.”
Prime Minister Theresa May speaks to journalists as she arrives at the Felsenreitschule prior to their informal dinner as part of the EU informal summit of heads of state or government in Salzburg, Austria, yesterday.
