European Dismay at UK Confusion
Some EU figures talk of "chaos" in the British government.
The report reveals that at a meeting between David Davis, Britain's Brexit Secretary, and the French ministers for Defence and European Affairs, Mr Davis barely mentioned Brexit.
This was much to the surprise of his hosts, who had regarded the meeting as an opportunity for Mr Davis to unblock French resistance to negotiations graduating to the next phase.
During a meeting in Luxembourg, the British judge in the European Court of justice bemoaned "the quality of politicians in Westminster".
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2017/1123/922191-brexit-embassies/The Brexit Veto: How and why Ireland raised the stakes.
Dublin needed something concrete from London. It was two months since the Guiding Principles Paper, and since then the EU26 had had nothing on Ireland to work on – no papers, no drafts.
Ireland therefore had two reasons to up the ante: to keep the pressure on the British, and to provide something tangible for the EU26. "There’s always the importance of avoiding a vacuum," says one Irish source.
There was pressure from other quarters. On 30 October, Ireland’s Commissioner Phil Hogan met arch Brexiteer and UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove at the World Dairy Summit in Belfast.
It’s understood Hogan pressed upon Gove the need for the UK to properly examine the need for Northern Ireland – if not the UK as a whole – to remain in the customs union and single market if Britain was to get serious about avoiding a hard border.
Gove, according to a source, gave little away except to acknowledge Hogan’s argument. Another source said Gove offered a hint that there may be some "all-island" opening on agrifood.
On 6 November, Phil Hogan had a breakfast meeting with James Brokenshire, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, during which Hogan drove home the same arguments he had made to Michael Gove. Again, the indications are that Brokenshire was unimpressed.
That afternoon, Brokenshire delivered a speech to the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels. He told the audience: "We joined the Common Market in 1973 as one United Kingdom and we will leave the European Union in 2019 as one United Kingdom. And as the Prime Minister has made clear, leaving the EU will mean that we leave both the single market and the customs union."
The text of the speech continued: "I find it difficult to imagine how Northern Ireland could somehow remain in while the rest of the country leaves."
However, going off script, Brokenshire added that he would find it "impossible" to imagine Northern Ireland remaining in the customs union and single market.
Brokenshire repeated aspects of London’s August paper on Ireland, highlighting trusted trader and all-island agrifood and epidemiological options as ways to avoid a hard border. Again, these were met with by scorn by Irish officials as "mantra."
https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2017/1117/920981-long-read-brexit/
