2) Depending on the outcome, Mr Roth told me, EU leaders would then decide whether or not to go ahead and call a November seal the deal #Brexit summit
3) If no seal the deal summit called in November on #Brexit, Germany’s Europe Minister told me there may be a No Deal summit convened amongst the EU 27 members instead
4) Mr Roth told me the EU 27 remained united over Ireland. There were no instances of individual member states pushing to concede more to the U.K. in order to solve the border issue, he said.
5) I asked Germany’s Europe Min why EU didn’t give more in negotiations when PM in such political difficulty at home. His answer “We won’t allow ourselves to be blackmailed!” He said EU never asked for #Brexit, had to make best of it but had to act in EU citizens’ interests first
6) Mr Roth denied Germany + France were ‘hardliners’ in #Brexit negotiations. Said both nations wanted close relations with U.K. economically and in security terms but had to protect integrity of single market in own citizens’ interest. Said that seemed hard for UK to accept
7) Germany’s Europe Minister admitted to me there was inevitably a certain amount of drama and theatre in negotiations like this but he said - no-one saw #Brexit as a game. It was a serious lose lose situation for both sides he said
