StoryPsychodramas, surprises and missed deadlines marked these four and a half years of extraordinary negotiations between London and Brussels, which threatened to fail several times before the agreement of December 24.
Who would have imagined, when the results of the British referendum on membership of the European Union (EU) fell on a pale morning in June 2016, that it would take four and a half years in London and Brussels to settle their divorce? That Europeans and Britons would end up agreeing in extremis, on December 24, on their post-Brexit “future relationship”, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic? Surprises, psychodramas and missed deadlines were not lacking during these negotiations.
In Brussels, the European institutions have been slow to mourn the loss of the United Kingdom, a difficult partner, but a leading one since 1973. In London, it took three prime ministers to come to the end of the divorce and, over the years. years the position of 10 Downing Street has steadily hardened from soft Brexit is a real break. Back on this extraordinary negotiation, which put an end to political careers, revealed personalities, generated its share of bitterness and divisions, and mobilized so much energy on both sides of the Channel.
Chapter 1: After the shock, Brussels gets organized, London procrastinates
23 July 2016. François Hollande invited Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, to dinner at the Elysee Palace. The two leaders appreciate each other, even if the first is a socialist while the second is a Christian Democrat. The former prime minister of Luxembourg, 61, is not in good shape, he is an injured man, he needs to be reassured, and this evening is timely.
A month earlier, on June 23, the British voted 51.9% for Brexit and, for this European enthusiast, it is a personal disaster. But it is also, he well knows, a snub – some people blame him for the outcome of the referendum. At the table of Twenty-Seven, Mr. Juncker does not only have friends. And the member states want to have control over the future divorce negotiations with London, which will be crucial for the future of the EU.
The Luxembourgish is not easy going, but it is a political end. That evening, he proposed to François Hollande to appoint Michel Barnier at the head of the future cell in charge of negotiations with London. The Gaullist knows the British well for having negotiated with them when he was European commissioner for the internal market, in charge of the regulation of the banking system, after the crisis of 2008. The Frenchman was several times minister (agriculture, foreign affairs) and commissioner, he frequented heads of state. Capitals will appreciate it, Mr Juncker thinks, and the Commission will be able to keep control over the future negotiation. The Luxembourger got it right, Paris supports him, and Michel Barnier was appointed on July 27, 2016.
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