Opinion – EU requires a rethink in its approach to UK’s trade talks (FT)
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The EU played an indirect but critical part in last week’s electoral triumph for UK prime minister Boris Johnson — and in Brexit.
It was a historic error of judgment by some of the EU’s leaders to collude with Remainers in the UK. Instead, they should have gone out of their way to help Mr Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May pass her withdrawal agreement.
The EU leadership not only overplayed its hand during the negotiations. It committed the critical error of refusing to rule out a Brexit extension from the outset. They contributed to the ensuing uncertainty and the change in the Tory leadership. The rest is history.
The Financial Times’ op-ed says that if EU leaders had any strategic sense, they would now pause for a minute to decide exactly what they want from a new bilateral relationship with the UK. The signs of that happening are not promising. I am marginally encouraged by Angela Merkel’s comments right after the UK election, looking forward to “friendship and close co-operation between our nations”. But Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, immediately raised the issue of fishing rights — an issue with the potential to kill any trade deal. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, set out a sequence with a first phase of talks to include only goods and fishing. This is exactly the same approach the EU took in the negotiations over the withdrawal agreement.
The UK would be mad to accept this. It would be complacent to think that Mr Johnson will be a pushover in the second phase, the upcoming trade negotiations. What would happen if the EU were to play hardball and only offer a minimal deal, perhaps spiced with demands for EU access to UK fishing waters, or that the UK follow EU labour market rules?
“If Brussels were to make such demands, it would give Mr Johnson a rational reason to walk away from talks entirely. The Brexit transition period is scheduled to expire at the end of 2020. At that point, Mr Johnson will still have four more years in office ahead of him, longer than any other EU leader.”
