Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to key eventsSkip to navigation

Merkel raises hopes of Brexit talks being able to move on to trade in December - Politics live

This article is more than 6 years old

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

 Updated 
Thu 19 Oct 2017 13.06 EDTFirst published on Thu 19 Oct 2017 04.18 EDT
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaks with Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron prior to a round table meeting in Brussels.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaks with Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron prior to a round table meeting in Brussels. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaks with Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron prior to a round table meeting in Brussels. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Live feed

Key events

Afternoon summary

  • Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has expressed hope that the Brexit talks will be able to progress to phase two - covering a future UK-EU trade deal - in December. (See 4.29pm.) With original hopes that the move to phase two would be agreed at today’s summit now quashed, the British government is now very anxious to move the talks on by the end of the year - not least because EU leaders will not agree a transition while the talks are stuck in phase one. Merkel’s words gave Theresa May some cause for optimism as she arrived for the start of the two-day summit. Other EU leaders also struck a relatively upbeat note about the possibility of a breakthrough in December (see 3.34pm, 3.54pm, 3.57pm and 4.46pm), but there were also calls for May to offer more clarity about what the UK is willing to pay the EU as it leaves (see 3.17pm and 4.06pm.)

It’s not a good thing if companies of any sort - manufacturing, services or anybody else - are thinking of leaving. This really highlights the uncertainty surrounding the government’s conduct of these negotiations.

  • Damian Green, the first secretary of state, has said the rising level of political abuse is fuelling an “atmosphere of increasing hatred” which threatens to poison democratic politics in Britain. In a speech to the press gallery he said:

If mainstream politicians and journalists start to behave like Twitter trolls and conspiracy theorists then democracy is in danger.

I do think we need to respect each other motives and treat each other’s views with courtesy. If we don’t we risk feeding an atmosphere of increasing hatred which at the most horrible extremes led to an event like the killing of Jo Cox ...

We have in the past few years witnessed a sad and completely ridiculous rise in routine comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis. It is symptomatic not just of a decline, but of a rapidly increasing viciousness in our discourse which is totally out of kilter with what I see day after day in the House of Commons.

Even when we are in the chamber or on the media giving it what-for, we need to remember that we are all democratic politicians.

What is pernicious is the attempt to portray your political opponents as somehow not quite human. It is the trick of extremists on both sides throughout the ages and we shouldn’t allow it to take hold in this country.

That’s all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.

Share
Updated at 

In his speech in Brussels today to European socialists Jeremy Corbyn used the term “national egotism”. He said:

Beyond Europe’s borders we have seen war and climate change drive the mass displacement of people and forced migration; a refugee crisis on a scale not seen since the Second World War, tearing apart communities and families.

That in turn is being exploited by some of the ugliest elements in our politics. People who are determined to promote fear and division within our societies.

All of this against a backdrop where our world is slipping back towards the threat of global conflict; spurred on by national egotism and neo-imperial ambition.

And where human and democratic rights - including freedom of speech - are increasingly coming under pressure on the fringes, and even within the borders of the European Union.

These are some of the challenges that face us – and the people we represent.

MLex’s Matthew Holehouse says that shows Corbyn is being well briefed.

Corbyn denounces "national egotism" in speech to S&D. Term with lots of meaning in Brussels and little in UK. He's being well-briefed.

— Matthew Holehouse (@mattholehouse) October 19, 2017
Jeremy Corbyn poses for a selfie with Slovenian member of the European parliament, Tanja Fajon, prior to a meeting of European socialists. Photograph: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP
Share
Updated at 

The Swedish government has commissioned research to prepare it for when the Brexit talks move on to the topic of trade, the BBC’s Adam Fleming reports.

ENG trans: Swedish govt asks trade agency @Kommerskoll to think about Phase 2 of #Brexit talks (h/t @mattholehouse) https://t.co/6UXo3umBWf pic.twitter.com/XmZDm6lNt3

— Adam Fleming (@adamfleming) October 19, 2017

Earlier this week Bloomberg published a story based on a draft paper from the German foreign ministry showing that the German government is also starting to plan for a UK-EU free trade deal.

Share
Updated at 

Tusk says EU and UK will have to work 'really hard' to achieve Brexit talks breakthrough in December

Donald Tusk, president of the European council, told reporters that he did not expect a breakthrough on Brexit at this summit and that they would have to work “really hard” to get to the position where they could move talks on to phase two in December. He said:

I don’t expect any kind of breakthrough ...

We have to work really hard between October and December to finalise this so-called first phase.

He was also asked if he agreed with the European parliament president Antonio Tajani about the €20bn being offered by Theresa May to the EU being “peanuts”. Tusk replied:

I have never seen 20 billion peanuts in my life.

Donald Tusk. Photograph: Danny Gys/AFP/Getty Images

Joseph Muscat, the Maltese prime minister, has told Sky News that the EU27 want to be “encouraging” towards the UK about the prospect of the Brexit talks progressing to trade issues in December. These are from Sky’s Faisal Islam.

NEW: EU Council Member, Malta PM Muscat tells @skynews: "pretty clear there will not be an agreement on the wording of sufficient progress"

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 19, 2017

Muscat: "wording agreed and spirit of answer we want to make that progress. Wording will be encouraging.. [but] cannot move to next stage"

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 19, 2017

I ask Malta PM - what about transition talks?
"This is not horse trading - changing rules of game mid way, rules clear from start"

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 19, 2017

Malta PM Muscat: "most of us will be in position to argue we need to show we're committed to move ahead"
In December? "In next few months.."

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 19, 2017

So EU Council member Muscat suggests might not be a reference to December, says EU27 want to be "encouraging" but not sufficient progress

— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) October 19, 2017
Joseph Muscat arrives at the EU summit. Photograph: Dario Pignatelli/Reuters

Merkel raises hopes of UK-EU trade talks being able to start in December

Here is the full quote from Angela Merkel expressing hope that the Brexit talks can progress to the trade negotiation phase in December. She said:

Tomorrow we will also discuss the question of Great Britain’s exit. There has been progress. Michel Barnier will tell us more about that. From where we are now, it [progress] is not sufficient enough to enter the second phase, but it is encouraging to move on with the work so that we can reach the second phase in December ...

I want to keep on doing these negotiations in good spirit and at the same time taking into account and respecting the wish of the British people to leave the EU but also maintaining a good relationship between Great Britain and the EU.

I’ve taken the quote from Politico Europe.

May must be 'more realistic', says Lithuanian president

This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. @Grybauskaite_LT is the Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaitė.

'Mrs May needs to be persuade herself to be more realistic' - is she? 'Not yet; - says @Grybauskaite_LT ouch!

— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) October 19, 2017
Lithuania’s pesident Dalia Grybauskaite. Photograph: Eric Vidal/Reuters
Jennifer Rankin
Jennifer Rankin

Angela Merkel has reaffirmed that Brexit negotiations could move onto trade by the end of the year, in remarks that could bolster the position of Theresa May.

December is the crunch deadline when EU leaders will judge whether the UK has made “sufficient progress” on the divorce issues that will allow Brexit talks to progress to trade. The EU’s 27 leaders are expected to announce on Friday they will launch internal discussions on the future relationship with the UK, without the participation of the British government.

Arriving at the summit, the German chancellor said there were “encouraging” signs that talks on trade could begin after the next EU summit in December, putting her seal of approval on the established EU position.

The upbeat tone was echoed by Luxembourg’s prime minister Xavier Bettel. He said:

We were friends, we are friends and we still will be friends. I am sure we will find an agreement.

He noted the change in tone between May’s speeches, including her latest outreach to EU citizens. “Times change and even Theresa May’s Facebook post went in the right direction.”

French president Emmanuel Macron chose to emphasise the unity of the EU27, as he arrived at the summit. He said EU’s unity was “very strong on Brexit”, adding that “we are all united behind one same negotiator Michel Barnier”.

Shortly before the summit began, footage showed the British prime minister in earnest conversation with Merkel and Macron.

The prime minister has repeatedly attempted to go over the heads of the EU’s Brexit negotiators, by appealing to European leaders to jump start the talks. Earlier this week, Downing Street tacitly admitted this gambit had failed when it signed up to a joint Brussels statement that “both sides agreed that [Brexit] would be discussed in the “framework agreed between the EU27 and the United Kingdom”.

Finland’s prime minister Juha Sipilӓ said he hoped to see progress onto trade in December, once the three divorce issues (EU citizens’ rights, money and Ireland) had been resolved. He said:

Of course we are a little bit frustrated about the progress but hopefully we can be in that position [to discuss trade] in December.

Asked whether the EU should plan for a no-deal Brexit, he said: “Not yet”.

Angela Merkel (left), Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron at the EU summit. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Share
Updated at 

Like Angela Merkel (see 2.56pm), the Finnish prime minister Juha Sipila also expressed the hope that the Brexit talks would be able to move on to phase two, the future trade negotiation, in December. He said:

I hope we can decide the next phase in December’s meeting, but today we are not in that position.

Finland’s prime minister Juha Sipila speaks to journalists at the summit. Photograph: Aurore Belot/AFP/Getty Images

Phil Hogan, the Irish European commissioner, said this week that the UK was “now so close to the cliff edge of a hard Brexit that we can see the drop almost in front of us.”

Arriving at the EU summit, Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, said he did not agree. “I think we have a way to go yet,” he said.

Brexit does not happen until April 2019. We are quite far back from the cliff edge at this stage. But it’s incumbent on the EU prime ministers and presidents to ensure that we don’t sleepwalk towards that cliff and that substantially more progress is made in the next couple of months. We are well away from the cliff.

But Varadkar also said that althought progress had been made on the Irish border, it was “just not enough”.

Language isn’t enough. If the UK is leaving the European Union it is on them to put forward detailed proposals to ensure that things remain much the same. That is at the core of the conflict with the position that the UK is taking.

Varadkar also said he was optimistic of more common ground in the Brexit talks by next month, the Press Association reports.

Leo Varadkar arriving at the EU summit meeting in Brussels. Photograph: Dario Pignatelli/Reuters

Boris Johnson says UK will do 'very well' if it has to leave EU with no deal

Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has said the UK will do “very well”, even if it has to leave the EU with no trade deal. Speaking to reporters after a meeting in London with Mexican foreign minister Luis Videgaray Caso, he said:

I think that we will get a deal and it will be a great deal and a great Brexit but with any negotiation you’ve got to be prepared to walk away.

And we are going to be prepared to do that and, as Luis has said, I think we’ll do fine but we’ll also be able to develop our relations with Mexico and that’s very exciting as well.

Asked if Britain would be fine if no deal is reached with the EU, he replied:

We have to prepare for every eventuality, and as our esteemed guest Luis Videgaray has said, we will come through it very well whatever happens.

Boris Johnson, right, with his Mexican counterpart Luis Videgaray Caso Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Dutch PM says UK must offer more clarity about Brexit bill

The Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, told reporters at the EU summit it should be a priority for Britain to come up with a clear proposal on the bill they will have to pay when they leave the European Union in 2019, Reuters reports. The Reuters report goes on:

Rutte said it was the key to progressing, as Britain desperately wants, to the next phase of Brexit talks about the future trade and security relationship.

When he had a phone call with his counterpart Theresa May last week Rutte said he’d told her: “’Listen, we need more clarity specifically about the bill.’”

Only if there is clarity on the bill is there “a chance for the statements today and tomorrow to be leaning more towards the British,” Rutte said as he walked into the summit.

Rutte said he would prefer to be offered a definite sum, with estimates varying from €20bn to three times as much. “I’d prefer a sum, so we can negotiate about it. But if this is asking too much, then at least have a proposal how to get to a sum. But even that, she hasn’t been able to produce,” he said.

Mark Rutte speaks to journalists as he arrives in Brussels. Photograph: Aurore Belot/AFP/Getty Images

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed