Theresa May today threatened to refuse to sign a £39 billion “divorce” settlement with the EU if it fails to give Britain a “precise” future trade deal within weeks.
The stark warning dramatically dampened expectations of an agreement at next week’s EU summit on Brexit.
It also heightened fears that Brussels may offer Britain only vague guarantees over future trade ties — possibly a document of just 15 to 20 pages — before it quits the European Union in March.
The timing of the Prime Minister’s public demand is also likely to cause alarm that the Government has still not nailed down the type of trade deal on the table.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker raised hopes over the weekend that a deal on the UK’s departure is close, saying: “The rapprochement potential between both sides has increased in recent days.”
But Downing Street stressed this morning that there were “big issues” that still needed to be resolved and demanded concessions from the EU. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We have always said that we are working hard for a deal this autumn and that continues at pace.”
However, he added: “It’s worth me pointing out that there is a difference between people talking optimistically about a deal and a deal including both withdrawal agreement and a future framework actually being agreed.
“There remain big issues to work through, and as the PM has said this will require movement on the EU side. I would just make that point again that there can be no withdrawal agreement without a precise future framework.”
The EU is said to be offering Mrs May only 30 to 40 per cent of what she wants from her Chequers Brexit blueprint.
Talks are intensifying in Brussels, with Arlene Foster, of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, due to meet EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier tomorrow to discuss her concerns over the Irish border issue.
It was not clear if Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab would travel to Brussels, where senior officials are in “technical” talks. The trade deal document, which will sit alongside the final exit treaty, will contain the basics of a co-operation agreement, EU sources said, but will not go beyond an offer by European leaders made last March.
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Back then, in a six-page statement, EU leaders offered the UK a zero-tariff free-trade deal, flanked by agreements on security and defence, data protection, research and other priority areas.
This week’s paper will be longer, sources said, but will leave the detail of the relationship with the UK — including trade — until after Brexit.
