EU to give Barnier mandate to close Brexit deals - Financial Times

As reported by the Financial Times, new instructions for the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, are expected in soon to begin extending an olive branch to the UK's Prime Minister, Theresa May. PM May has been facing an embroiled Brexit negotiation process, stuck between a staunch EU on one side and hard-line Brexiteers at home.

Key quotes

"After a weekend in which Boris Johnson, former UK foreign secretary, lambasted Mrs May’s Brexit strategy as wrapping “a suicide vest around the British constitution”, any positive signals from the EU would provide a rare fillip for the British prime minister. An informal summit in Salzburg this month between the EU’s 27 remaining leaders is emerging as one of the most significant Brexit discussions since the bloc first set its strategy for talks.

Senior British officials have long complained that Mr Barnier has interpreted his instructions too rigidly, leaving talks deadlocked. Dominic Raab, Brexit secretary, has blamed “dogmatic legalism” for limiting progress in talks.

EU leaders have issued instructions to their negotiator three times since the 2016 Brexit referendum, framing the union’s collective response to divorce issues, the transition, and the terms of a non-binding “political declaration” on future relations. If leaders agree at the September 20 meeting, diplomats expect a final set of guidelines to be formally adopted at the October summit of EU leaders, setting the stage for a special Brexit summit in November, where the two sides would aim to conclude talks.

The prime minister faces a torrid Conservative conference in Birmingham in early October, with Mr Johnson planning to address up to 1,000 party activists at a “Chuck Chequers” rally.

She is hoping that EU leaders will throw her a lifeline by making clear that they want Mr Barnier to show enough flexibility to achieve a final deal. “We aren’t expecting the EU to change Barnier’s guidelines, but we hope the leaders will tell them to interpret them in such a way as to make a deal possible,” said one senior British official."