Brexit Briefing: Hostilities Resume as Juncker Hopes for a Miracle

2017-09-29 14:23:00

Talking Points

- European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has slapped down hopes of a Brexit breakthrough by the time of a summit in Brussels late next month.

- UK Prime Minister Theresa May says she’s looking for the EU to reciprocate after her speech last Friday setting out her vision for a ‘deep and special relationship’.

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By the end of October, the EU and the UK will not have made sufficient progress in their Brexit talks to move them on to discussions about the future relationship between Britain and the European Union, according to the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

“At the end of this week, I am saying that there will be no sufficient progress from now until October unless miracles will happen,” he said. The UK had been hoping to progress from talks about expatriate rights, the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, and the divorce bill to negotiations about the future ties between the two squabbling partners.

In particular, the UK had been hoping for a breakthrough by the time of a summit in Brussels on October 19-20. However, Juncker was not alone in expressing skepticism, with both the Dutch and Irish Prime Ministers echoing his sentiments.

However, UK Prime Minister Theresa May sounded more hurt than confrontational in her latest comments Friday. “A week ago I gave a speech in Florence which set out how we have made good progress so far; I thought we could make further progress and moving on to looking at the future deep and special relationship and partnership that we want to build with the European Union when the UK has left the EU,” she told the Reuters news agency.

“I set out what I thought was the future deep and special partnership we can build with the EU and I look for the speech that I set out for that being reciprocated in proposals that the EU will come forward with.”

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