UK pushes Europe for more frequent Brexit talks to break negotiating 'stalemate'
With UK Brexit papers labelled "unsatisfactory" and business leaders concerned, officials call for more regular head to heads.
Tuesday 29 August 2017 18:05, UK
British officials have told their European counterparts they are keen to step up the pace of Brexit negotiations with more frequent rounds than the current timetable of one week a month.
The UK call for haste comes as the third round of negotiations continued in Brussels amid tension, disagreement and a sense of stalemate.
As 100 British officials sat down with their European counterparts to begin this week's negotiations, the President of the European Commission issued a scathing assessment of progress.
Speaking to a conference of European Union ambassadors, Jean-Claude Juncker echoed the pessimistic tone struck by his Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, saying that an enormous number of issues remain unsettled.
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Speaking in French, Mr Juncker said: "The UK government is hesitant in showing all its cards. Why would it do this?
"We now have the negotiating team in Brussels meeting with Mr Barnier. I did read with the requisite attention all the papers produced by Her Majesty's Government. But none of those papers are in fact satisfactory."
"There are still an enormous number of issues that need to be settled," Mr Juncker continued.
"Not only the border problems with Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is a very serious problem to which we have had no definitive response, but also the issue of European citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living on the continent."
To the assertion from the UK side that the settlement or 'divorce' issues - the Irish border, citizens' rights and the so-called exit bill - can only be agreed upon in tandem with discussion of the future trade relationship, Mr Juncker was unequivocal.
"We need to be crystal clear that there will be no negotiations, particularly on trade between the UK and the EU, before all these issues - that is to say those under Article 50 - are resolved. That is to say the divorce between the EU and the UK."
Speaking after Mr Juncker's damning assessment, Theresa May's spokeswoman said Britain felt it was in a "good position" in the talks and wanted to agree to move on to discussions about its future relationship by the current deadline of October.
She repeated Brexit Secretary David Davis' call for the EU to show "imagination and flexibility" in the talks.
Although it was understood this third round of negotiations would begin on Monday, most of the British officials arrived by Eurostar on Tuesday morning.
British officials say there will be a total of at least 55 hours of negotiations this week.
Separate working groups are negotiating different separation issues in five different negotiating rooms within the European Commission's Berlaymont building in Brussels.
A key element of the discussion throughout Tuesday is understood to be the 'exit bill', more accurately described as the financial settlement: the amount of money the EU believes the UK owes on its departure.
British officials are understood to have presented their EU counterparts with their legal assessment of Europe's financial demands.
In a tetchy news conference on Monday, David Davis looked visibly irritated as his EU counterpart said the UK needed to clarify its positions and end "ambiguity" if it wanted "serious" withdrawal talks.
"To be honest, I'm concerned," Mr Barnier said.
"Time passes quickly. I welcome the UK government's paper and we have read them very carefully - very carefully. But we need UK positions on all separation issues. This is necessary to make sufficient progress."
He urged for more openness from Mr Davis on the divorce deal before future relations and a transition deal could be discussed.
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Mr Davis insisted that all the UK position papers were sufficiently detailed, saying: "They are the products of hard work and detailed thinking that has been going on behind the scenes not just the last few weeks, but for the last 12 months, and should form the basis of what I hope will be a constructive week of talks."
On Wednesday the two sides will focus specifically on the issue of the land border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, which will become an external EU border after Brexit.
It is likely the UK will again press the case for negotiations on the future relationship to take place alongside separation discussions, stressing that it is impossible to define what the border will look like until both sides have determined what their future trade relationship will be.
Business leaders are increasingly worried about the slow progress of the negotiations.
Tom Parker, from the British Chamber of Commerce in Brussels, told Sky News it is a make or break week.
He said: "We're concerned. We're very concerned. We feel like we're still having the same discussions and, as everybody knows, time is ticking.
"It's time to get on with it and our members are concerned that progress is made and made pretty quickly."
More than a million UK citizens living in the EU and three million Europeans living in the UK also remain unsure of their future.
A representative for Britons living in the EU told Sky News there had been "limited progress in round two of the negotiations and there is a long way to go before will feel confident about our futures".