Different aims lead to different points of view on Brexit negotiations, and no one should be surprised
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“Minutes before holding a blistering Salzburg press conference on Thursday, Donald Tusk met Theresa May. Yet somehow the British prime minister was still blindsided by the European Council president’s takedown of her “unworkable” Chequers plan.
Whether through misjudgment or miscommunication, Mrs May is furious and the EU is baffled. “She didn’t see it coming and we just don’t know why,” said one senior EU diplomat in touch with Downing Street. The surprise highlights a recurrent theme of British diplomacy in Europe over the years. UK prime ministers — from Mrs May to David Cameron and Tony Blair — have a habit of believing EU leaders will be more accommodating than their emissaries — and quite often they are proved spectacularly wrong.
Salzburg also shows that, on Brexit, Britain and the EU may be talking at cross-purposes about what an exit agreement should aim to do. Mrs May angrily called on Brussels to be clearer about the relationship it wants with Britain.
But while London speaks of mutual interest and flexibility, the aim of Paris, Berlin and Brussels is “the survival of the European project”, in one senior EU negotiator’s words. Their priority for Brexit is to ensure the EU stays the same after the UK leaves the bloc.”
