EU throws down Brexit gauntlet to Britain as talks edge closer

Bloomberg

European Union governments threw down the gauntlet to the U.K. ahead of Brexit talks, listing demands Prime Minister Theresa May must satisfy before they will discuss the trade deal she wants and urging her to be more realistic in her expectations.
Any doubts about the scale of the task facing Britain in withdrawing from the EU after four decades were laid to rest at a Brussels summit of the region’s leaders on Saturday. A tough negotiating stance was endorsed unanimously, within minutes and to applause. The U.K. responded by saying it’s bracing for a confrontation.
The complexity comes down to the fact that a departure from the world’s biggest trading bloc has never been done and was never supposed to happen. The EU is striving to ensure the U.K. is worse off outside it than inside, not least to avoid setting a precedent. After agreeing to the terms of separation, then it’s a matter of getting down to the business of what a future relationship might look like.
“Nobody has united here against the U.K.,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters as she left the meeting. “The British people have made a decision, which we will have to respect. But we remaining 27 now get together in order to speak with one voice.”
The Brexit discussions will begin soon after the U.K.’s June election, which May called in part to strengthen her mandate going into talks. The first orders of business, according to the EU, will be guaranteeing the rights of 3 million EU citizens living in Britain and calculating a financial settlement one leader said would be at least 40 billion euros ($44 billion). Only once “sufficient progress’’ is made on those thorny topics and reinforcing the border between the two Irelands will the EU’s attention turn to trade. That looks unlikely to happen before December.
May stuck to her guns on Sunday by arguing payments to the EU should be negotiated at the same time as future trade. “I want to ensure that we agree on a trade deal and our withdrawal arrangements so that we know what both of those are when we leave the European Union,” she said on the BBC. “I’m confident we can get a deal.”

Owning Brexit
Seeking to present a united stance in contrast to what they perceive to be muddled thinking and unrealistic ambitions on the British side, Merkel and her counterparts entered the European Council’s headquarters in Brussels declaring they stood as one. The message to Britain is that it’s they, not London, in control of what Brexit will look like.
“The U.K. is being confronted with reality now,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who estimated the bill for checking out would be between 40 billion and 60 billion euros, said in an interview. The British “can’t get any more favors than a nation that isn’t in the EU,” he said. “The fact remains that it was their decision to leave the EU.” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker suggested the U.K. government might not actually know that. He recalled that when he dined with May last Wednesday, he detected a feeling that Britain’s future deal with the EU could still be discussed in parallel with arranging the divorce. “That won’t happen,’’ said Juncker. He added later: “I sometimes have the impression that our British friends underestimate the technical difficulties we have to face.’’

UK Election
Responding to the summit’s decisions, British Brexit Secretary David Davis acknowledged the pending talks would be tough, complex and likely confrontational. As May has repeatedly done, he used the EU’s stance to argue voters should back their Conservative Party when they go to the polls on June 8 rather than the opposition Labour Party.
“Both sides are clear — we want these negotiations to be conducted in the spirit of goodwill, sincere cooperation and with the aim of establishing a close partnership between the UK and the EU going forward,’’ Davis said. “There are already people in Europe who oppose these aims and people at home trying to undermine them.’’
The guidelines rubber-stamped on Saturday have been repeatedly toughened over the past four weeks as the EU tries to make an example of Britain.
The final version demands the U.K. pay a bill that reflects what its already committed to the bloc’s accounts, including contributions through the end of 2020 when the current budget period ends.