Is Theresa finally spoiling for a #Brexit fight? Might she finally be about to force clarity? No 10 sources talking tough to @Jack_Blanchard_ playbook on the #Chequers summit.
Where @FraserNelson reckons the Brexit bunch will bottle it. Just like always. Makes you wonder why the wasted months in forcing a viable position? Let’s see if May folds too? She has to leave the #Chequers summit with something EU can look at.
But keep an eye out for @MichelBarnier speech this AM. Fears on U.K. side he may pre-emptively stomp on the May plan. Understand it took an absolute kicking at Article 50 working group yesterday. Commission stiffening spines in case U.K. offer tempts?
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Yesterday @simoncoveney was talking "flexibility". /1
@eucopresident@campaignforleo@simoncoveney Then this morning, the FT reported that Ireland was prepared to back British proposal for all-UK customs arrangement on the backstop /2
@eucopresident@campaignforleo@simoncoveney This wasn't surprising. Always been Dublin ambition, but clearly they need to balance need to preserve UK-IE trade, with being good EU27 citizens and defending integrity of single market.
The Irish FT briefing was seen as a sign of helpfulness on UK side.
Now it seems like the British government also issued her a visa.
The fitness of the Polish judicial system is already under review relating to the European Arrest Warrant.
Now it seems like Germany and UK are not showing solidarity with Poland on Schengen Information System./2
The activist says she's in trouble because of a Facebook post her husband made calling for peaceful civil disobedience against Poland judicial reforms.
Poland justified the ban saying her NGO has "opaque" funding. /3
Let's be clear, there has been some silly stuff from both sides - @EmmanuelMacron should know better that talking about "liars" and @eucopresident trolling May on Instagram is also pretty daft. /2
@EmmanuelMacron@eucopresident But divorces get like this: both sides know the mud-slinging it is counter-productive, "bad for the kids" but still can't help themselves.
Jeremy Hunt's speech was pretty much student union level stuff, as has been pointed out. /3
@BorisJohnson And when you read it in that light, it becomes rather more persuasive.
Brexit is indeed a muddle and a mess. The British frog is indeed being boiled. Brexit probably always was/is more binary than both sides have properly allowed. /2
@BorisJohnson I am not at all sure Boris is right that Whitehall and the EU conspired to keep the UK in a customs union, for example, but that will be a powerful anti-narrative if that's where we end up.
FWIW my conversations in Europe suggest rather different. /3
These divisions were always over-reported and over-spun by No-10. Yes, some say different but in 27 context (viz Orban last week) they don’t. And drill down with their dips on how far they really support splitting freedoms? Not so much. I’ve tried. Doesn’t stack up IMO.
Then May/No10 over reads what she gets told in bilaterals (where she is wooden and hopeless) and takes what one EU dip from big EU state said to me were “mere generalities, pleasantries” about “wanting a deal” for a willingness to cross major red lines. Salzburg says not.
May’s problem is that she’s asking for special treatment in the Trump-Orban-Salvini era and Macron’s people says he sees Brexit in that sweep. As does Commission and Berlin (though less aggressively) which makes U.K. pitch v hard.