EU Parliament sets the lines for Brexit negotiations

Most European outlets report that the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the suggested “red lines” for the Brexit talks, as set out by senior figures in Brussels. The resolution was passed by 516 votes to 133, with 50 abstentions. According to La Libre Belgique, the vote’s result testifies to MEP’s desire to show a united front. The European Parliament will only intervene in the final stage of Brexit, but MEPs have already defined the conditions for the approval of the agreement between the European Union and the UK, Público notes.

President Juncker described the role of the European Parliament in the exit negotiations as that of a “divorce lawyer”, who has to disentangle the close relationship between the UK and the EU, German media report. La Tribune Hebdomadaire comments on the choice of of ALDE MEP Guy Verhosftadt, who is known to take the “federalist vocation” of the EU very seriously, as coordinator, writing that it shows that the European Parliament “has no intention of being a ‘silent partner’” in the process. First, the EU rejected UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal to hold exiting talks parallel to new trade agreement negotiations.

European Commission’s Brexit Chief negotiator, Michel Barnier told the European Parliament that “the sooner we agree on the principles of an orderly withdrawal, the sooner we can prepare our future relations in trade”. The Parliament’s main demand was, that the rights of both British citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK should be secured, several media report. “We consider that the rights of citizen from the 28 Member States are the absolute priority” Gabi Zimmer, president of the GUE-NGL group at the European Parliament, told L’Humanité. The resolution also urges Britain to bear responsibility for payment obligations and respect the peace process of Northern Ireland, Helsingin Sanomat notes.

Another priority will be to preserve the remaining 27 Member States’ unity, or even not to grant access to the single market without free-movement of capitals, goods, services and people, writes L’Opinion. Spanish media note that the parliament refused to include an explicit reference to Gibaltar, a majority of whose citizens voted to remain in the EU. MEP Liisa Jaakonsaari (S&D) told Helsingin Sanomat that the tone of the discussion was sad but conciliatory.

El País‘s José Manuel Calvo writes that yesterday’s plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg confirmed the gloomy prediction, that no divorce is a good thing and Brexit will be no exception. ARD reports that during the debate prior to the vote, several MEPs spoke out in favour of a hard Brexit, saying that the demands of the UK to retain benefits from its EU membership after Brexit will not be met and that an “à-la-carte” approach was out of the question.

L’Opinion quotes EPP President Manfred Weber who repeated that “one cannot, while being out of the EU, enjoy the same benefits as those who are in the EU.” In response, MEP Nigel Farage (EFDD) harshly criticised the European Parliament, accusing EU leaders of behaving like “the Mafia” and holding Britain “hostage” with its divorce bill demands, several European media report. While Thomas Kirchner criticises this statement in Süddeutsche Zeitung, an editorial in the Daily Express agrees with Farage’s comments: the “thuggish bravado” employed by “Eurocrats such as [President] Juncker, Guy Verhofstadt and Michel Barnier” ahead of the Brexit negotiations is “reminiscent of the bullying behaviour we associate with Mafia movies,” the newspaper says. Moreover, according to an editorial in The Sun, “It is little surprise that they approved a series of Brexit “red lines” that would force Britain to pay billions on leaving the EU while keeping the country bound by the most intrusive EU regulations”.