The first formal meeting between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) on their post-Brexit relationship ended with little in the way of serious progress.
Senior officials from the British government’s Brexit department and their counterparts from the European Commission picked over the guidelines for future ties that the EU’s 27 remaining leaders published last month, said a person familiar with the talks.
That document acts as a starting point for a more detailed agreement on post-2020 relations that the two sides hope to finalize before late-October.
But EU officials say they need far more detail about the UK’s position on the future before negotiations can begin in earnest and describe what they’ve heard so far as unacceptable cherry-picking of some parts of EU membership.
They also maintain that there’s still time for the government to change its mind, in particular over whether to pull out of the bloc’s customs union. While that’s a key part of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit policy, the UK’s upper house voted against the move on Wednesday.
EU officials explained the thinking behind the guidelines and the two teams also discussed how to prioritize topics to be discussed over the coming weeks, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.
They aim to reach agreement in matters including trade in goods and services, regulatory standards in areas such as food safety and tax policy and the exchange of personal data.
‘Political declaration’
The agreement on future relations will come in the form of a nonbinding “political declaration” and will form the basis of fully fledged trade negotiations—once the UK is out of the EU and in an already-agreed 21-month transition period from March 2019.
In addition to trying to get agreement on the future, negotiators also discussed unresolved issues connected to the UK’s withdrawal, in particular how to keep the Irish border invisible if Britain quits the customs union.
Earlier, EU President Donald Tusk told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, that it was Britain’s responsibility to help come up with a solution for the Irish border because “the UK’s decision on Brexit has caused the problem.”
“Without a solution there will be no withdrawal agreement and no transition,” he said.
May defeated in Lords
The United Kingdom’s upper house voted against a key part of Prime Minister May’s Brexit policy, inflicting a defeat on the government that could eventually push it toward keeping closer ties with the European Union.
The defeat by a margin of more than 100 votes was on an amendment pressing May to seek a post-Brexit customs union with the EU. Staying in a customs union is a key demand of business as it would facilitate trade. It would also ease negotiations in Brussels.
While the government doesn’t interpret the amendment as binding, the heavy defeat may signal more challenges ahead.
For starters, there is the scale of the defeat. It could embolden members of her Conservative Party in the elected House of Commons who want to soften Brexit. Once it has cleared the Lords, the bill returns to the lower chamber, where there’s probably a majority who favor a customs union that is now also the official policy of the main opposition party.
The prime minister “must now listen to the growing chorus of voices who are urging her to drop her red line on a customs union and rethink her approach,” Labour’s Brexit Spokesman Keir Starmer said in a statement after the vote.
Pro-EU Tories are feeling bold. Lawmaker Anna Soubry, a former Conservative business minister who has put her name to amendments to other bills in the lower chamber pushing for a customs union, retweeted a Twitter post saying “Lords batter the govt.”
She earlier coauthored an article in London’s Evening Standard newspaper with former Tory Chairman Chris Patten, one of the sponsors of the Lords amendment, that described staying in a customs union as “the best way to support our trade both within Europe and beyond.”
“There are times in one’s political career when what is alleged to be party loyalty comes way behind trying to stand up for the national interest,” Patten said during the debate that preceded the vote. “In doing that I think I will be repeating what I would have been able to say with the full support of my party for most of the time I’ve been a member of it.”
May was later defeated on a second amendment that binds the government to bring in added protections for workers rights, environmental protections and consumer standards that stem from EU law currently in place.
May’s bind
May has rejected staying in the customs union as it would prevent Britain pursuing an independent trade policy, which for the most enthusiastic Brexit supporters in her party is a crucial benefit of leaving the bloc. If she reneges on that, she risks a leadership challenge.
“We have set out our two potential options for a future customs relationship with the EU,” Brexit Minister Martin Callanan told the upper chamber before the vote. The amendment “would send a signal that the government won’t seek to negotiate them and instead will pursue an outcome that the government has ruled out.”
After the vote, the Department for Exiting the European Union said it was “disappointed” by the result, but that the government doesn’t feel bound to change its policy.
Further defeats possible
The cross-party amendment passed by 348 votes to 225. As well as Patten, it was sponsored by Labour’s Brexit spokesman in the Lords, Dianne Hayter, Liberal Democrat Sarah Ludford, and John Kerr, an independent who helped draft the Article 50 clause that governs the Brexit process.
After Wednesday’s sittings, the bill has five more sessions in the Lords through May 8 before returning to the Commons. Labour sees a chance of beating May on eight issues, including the customs union and critically—the government’s desire to set Brexit day in stone on March 29, 2019.