British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond is expected to urge EU leaders Wednesday to break their “silence’’ on how they see relations between the EU and Britain after Brexit.
Hammond said this in a speech delivered on Wednesday, at an annual Die Welt economic summit in Berlin.
“They say it takes two to tango: Both sides need to be clear about what they want from a future relationship,” Hammond said.
“I know the repeated complaint from Brussels has been that the UK ‘hasn’t made up its mind what type of relationship it wants’,” he said.
“But in London, many feel that we have little, if any, signal of what future relationship the EU27 would like to have with a post-Brexit Britain.”
Hammond said there was “a marked asymmetry between the enthusiasm expressed by certain third countries” to agree post-Brexit trade deals with Britain, and “the relative silence, in public at least, from Europe on what the EU wants our future relationship to look like.”
“By signalling a willingness to work together in a spirit of pragmatic cooperation on a future, mutually beneficial, partnership … the EU will send a message to the British people which will resonate as they consider the options for their future,” he said.
Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis risked fresh tensions with Brussels by reaching out directly to Germany on Wednesday with a call for a new trade and economic model of cooperation with Berlin and the EU, as Brexit negotiations enter a critical phase.
The EU’s stance is that negotiations are to be handled out of Brussels, not between Britian and individual EU members.
In a joint column published in Wednesday’s daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, they set out plans for a “bespoke solution” aimed at maximising economic cooperation between Britain and the Brussels-based bloc.
“When we leave the EU, we will leave the customs union and single market, but in agreeing a new model of co-operation, we should not restrict ourselves to models and deals that already exist,” the two ministers wrote.
“Instead we should use the imagination and ingenuity that our two countries and the EU have shown in the past, to craft a bespoke solution that builds on our deeply integrated, unique starting point to maximise economic co-operation, while minimising additional friction.”
However, their comments raise the risk of fresh tensions between Britain and the EU regarding the Brexit talks, with both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and top EU officials having firmly rejected any moves by London to cherry-pick in an exit agreement.
The Financial Times and other British media said the two ministers were launching a “charm offensive” with German politicians and business leaders, making separate visits to Germany on Wednesday and Thursday.
Davis would “try to mobilise German business to lobby for a deal that maintains close economic ties,” the newspaper said.
Hammond and Davis see financial services and the banking sector as part of their proposed new model of comprehensive economic cooperation.
But Brussels sees the only trading relationship with the EU as being through membership of the single market or free trade deal along the lines negotiated with Canada.(Reuters/NAN)
