Merkel's political allies vow united front on Brexit

[webfact]

Merkel's political allies vow united front on Brexit

By Robin Emmott

REUTERS

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel takes part in a European People Party (EPP) summit in St Julian's, Malta, March 30, 2017. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi

 

ST JULIAN'S, Malta (Reuters) - Pro-European allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday set out a firm line on Britain's exit negotiations, including an exit bill for London among the main priorities of the EU's overall stance.

 

With control of the main EU institutions in Brussels and counting EU negotiator Michel Barnier among their ranks, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) will be one of the most important pressure groups behind the scenes of the talks.

 

At a two-day congress dominated by Britain's formal decision to quit the bloc on Wednesday, Europe's most powerful political family said it will seek to ensure the rights of EU citizens in Britain continue, that Northern Ireland avoids a hard border with Ireland and that London settles its accounts on leaving.

 

"The exit bill must be paid in full by the United Kingdom," said Frenchman Joseph Daul, leader of the EPP that is broadly made up of centre-right Christian Democrats.

 

The party "will not allow the cherry-picking we saw over the past few decades," chairman Manfred Weber said, adamant that Britain cannot shape the new future relationship in the way London did as an EU member, opting in and out of certain areas.

 

A possible bill of 60 billion euros ($64 billion) has been mentioned in Brussels since last year, but officials stress it is only a very rough estimate and needs to be discussed in two exit negotiations that are expected to start in mid-May.

 

"NOW WE ARE THREE"

 

To the music of the 1970s hit "We Are Family" at a luxury hotel in Malta, the EPP pledged not to allow Britain to exploit divisions between centre-right governments during the talks.

 

Although a now familiar promise by all European Union leaders, it may hold more weight because of the divisions among European socialists, particularly in France, traditionally a twin engine of the European Union along with Germany.

 

In tatters, France's ruling Socialist Party is almost certain to lose power in this year's elections, while the left has lost ground in southern Europe and is not assured of unseating Merkel in Germany's elections later in September.

 

"We are united to respond to whatever letters come from London," said EPP secretary general Antonio Lopez-Isturiz. "I challenge the Socialists to have such a gathering," he said to an audience of hundreds of delegates. "I challenge them to organise a football team."

 

Former British premier David Cameron took the Conservatives out of the EPP in 2009 to appease eurosceptics in his party but at the cost of lost influence in the political group.

 

Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic was scathing about Cameron, blaming him for allowing internal divisions within the Conservatives to lead to Brexit.

 

"Never allow an intra-party question to become a national, a European or a global question," he told the congress.

 

EPP leaders including Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny relished in the EPP's upswing that saw it win the presidency of the European Parliament and regain the presidency of the European Council, which chairs EU summits, this year.

 

He noted negotiator Barnier was a member of the centre-right grouping and called for EPP support to avoid problems that its withdrawal from the EU will create on the Irish border, as well to include a 1998 Irish peace deal in a final Brexit accord.

 

"Now we are three!" the new president of the EU legislature Antonio Tajani declared to hundreds of members of the party faithful, referring to the EPP control of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission.

 

Merkel called that "a major success" but told the party it now had the responsibility not to abuse its position and uphold values of fairness and solidarity, although she did not directly mention the Brexit negotiations.

 

"We have to find answers now ... We have problems to solve at the European level," Merkel said, citing migration and combating Islamic militants, areas that will involve Britain.

 

($1 = 0.9315 euros)

 

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-31

[terryw]

The EU exit bill appears to be increasing day by day. Our annual budget contribution is about 10  billion Euros a year. If we leave in 2 years time then the bill should be 20 billion.

 

If the UK government agrees to anything more than what we have legally agreed then it will be political suicide for them. The constant demand for money will make a hard Brexit inevitable.

[sanukjim]

How about those opposed to Brexit ( Brexit is going to happen) just start packing up and deciding where in The EU they want to reside ?

[jollyhangmon]

20 minutes ago, sanukjim said:

How about those opposed to Brexit ( Brexit is going to happen) just start packing up and deciding where in The EU they want to reside ?

They do.

Including companies/headquarters & institutions of all sorts ...

[Guest]

This is a good exercise for EU. In today's world we need strong and united EU more than ever.

 

[dick dasterdly]

12 minutes ago, oilinki said:

This is a good exercise for EU. In today's world we need strong and united EU more than ever.

 

Which is why its a shame that it became an overly expensive (understatement!), empire building bureaucracy.

Edited March 31, 2017 by dick dasterdly

[sanukjim]

10 minutes ago, oilinki said:

This is a good exercise for EU. In today's world we need strong and united EU more than ever.

 

With the UK leaving ,there are others now thinking the same thing,with the hardest for them being their reinventing their own currencies.The EU is on the decline with or with out any more departures.The liberation of the laws allowing member countries to continue begging for handouts while doing nothing to improve their costly living by tightening their laws of giveaway has and will continue to drag them down. And there can be seen no change in the near future.

[Guest]

EU is not going away. People have learned how Russia  have been affecting western politics. It's open discussion now..

Le Pen's visit to meet Putin, her financial support will not go well with Europeans.

 

In fact both Brexit and Trump mess have been a teaching for the rest of us. Populists are in decline.
Meanwhile EU itself has learned lesson of the 'uncontrolled' immigration and big changes are on the way right now.

 

 

Nationalist populist parties decline in Europe

[elgordo38]

Ho Hum just another day of political clap trap. 40 years I have endured this never ending HS. Good thing we can depend on the sun to rise daily and of course the political clap trap daily as well. 

[RandG]

Merkel and Hollande say "jump!", and the other 25 countries shout "how high".

 

Voted for Remain but seeing how the EU "leaders" (and I use the term loosely) seem to be determined to screw the UK, even at the expense of the economies of other EU Member States, it seems we are right in getting out, despite any short term pain. Clearly trying to create an organisation where countries are terrified to leave, rather than one a country wants be a part of. Desperate to keep the Brussels gravy train going at any cost.

[Nigel Garvie]

4 hours ago, terryw said:

The EU exit bill appears to be increasing day by day. Our annual budget contribution is about 10  billion Euros a year. If we leave in 2 years time then the bill should be 20 billion.

 

If the UK government agrees to anything more than what we have legally agreed then it will be political suicide for them. The constant demand for money will make a hard Brexit inevitable.

Not a great understanding of economic realities here, if you are part of a consortium and you decide to leave there is a cost to everyone, 50 years of EC law to unpick for a start. Nothing to do with your annual contribution, that's just wishful thinking. We want to leave, we pay the price, or exclude ourselves from a huge and very important market, see below.

"The economists for Brexit are out on a limb, both because of their desire for unilateral tariff reduction and due to their assessment of the benefits. Many other economists say the model the group uses is far removed from the real world and is not related to real current data on trade patterns. Rarely has there been such a consensus among economists, as there is on the damage that Brexit will wreak on the British economy."  This is from that well know left wing paper the FT!

Even the most optimistic non Brexiteer forecast has us loosing nearly 3% of GDP which dwarfs our current EU contribution.

 

We keep on hearing that "The people have spoken", but if the people believed what they read in the Mail and Sun, and believed what they heard from Nigel Fromage, that is not democracy, just idiocracy.

 

Edited March 31, 2017 by Nigel Garvie
missing graphic

[roobaa01]

who would heal to an eu forum of political talking heads and simple minds only, certainly not the dfiant uk, it will laugh not paying any stupid bills.

then what means eu :

 

1. faltered migration as millions of welfare freeloaders without skills flooding the eu

2. exorbitant debt loads with skyhigh budget deficits

3.no common defence policy

4. no common foreign policy

 

all in all a useless money burning monster, producing paper and talk only.

 

wbr

roobaa01

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

12 hours ago, terryw said:

The EU exit bill appears to be increasing day by day. Our annual budget contribution is about 10  billion Euros a year. If we leave in 2 years time then the bill should be 20 billion.

 

If the UK government agrees to anything more than what we have legally agreed then it will be political suicide for them. The constant demand for money will make a hard Brexit inevitable.

Latest figures I heard on the Daily Politics Show on Wednesday for the top three of the six contributing nations (out of 28 members) were;

(figures are net) Germany € 14bn, UK € 12bn, France € 6bn. Andrew Neil brushed aside the other three as "insignificant".

Digging through to find the figures is, of course, not easy and what information there is is a couple of years out of date.

As for the "bill" it depends on what long term agreements have been made and whether we can be held accountable for payments due after we leave.

All this nonsense from Junker and the French about settling up first is a ploy. They said today they can alter any parts of the items agreed at any time, then so can we.

Article 50 states that all talks need to be included, on commitments and future relations during the negotiation period, before any deal can be put to the vote.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

8 hours ago, Nigel Garvie said:

Not a great understanding of economic realities here, if you are part of a consortium and you decide to leave there is a cost to everyone, 50 years of EC law to unpick for a start. Nothing to do with your annual contribution, that's just wishful thinking. We want to leave, we pay the price, or exclude ourselves from a huge and very important market, see below.

"The economists for Brexit are out on a limb, both because of their desire for unilateral tariff reduction and due to their assessment of the benefits. Many other economists say the model the group uses is far removed from the real world and is not related to real current data on trade patterns. Rarely has there been such a consensus among economists, as there is on the damage that Brexit will wreak on the British economy."  This is from that well know left wing paper the FT!

Even the most optimistic non Brexiteer forecast has us loosing nearly 3% of GDP which dwarfs our current EU contribution.

 

We keep on hearing that "The people have spoken", but if the people believed what they read in the Mail and Sun, and believed what they heard from Nigel Fromage, that is not democracy, just idiocracy.

 

Regurgitated cr@p from Project Fear...