Thread by @JenniferMerode

The EU's deputy Brexit negotiator Sabine Weyand made a rare public speech @epc_eu today @RobSchuCentre

Thread on some of her key lines

h/t @DanielBoffey

theguardian.com/politics/2019/…

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey There is a no-deal by accident, she said. No-deal is costly for the EU as well, “but we think we can handle it”. For UK no deal would mean "a part of the regulatory and supervisory structure of economy breaks away – a much bigger challenge.”

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey On the UK side there had not been full ownership of withdrawal agreement. She later said the PM had taken ownership, but problem had been keeping talks in small circle.
EU had more experience in handling negotiations.

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey SW: Theresa May suffered a crushing defeat, but the 432 voted against for different reasons.
It is “quite a challenge” to see how to construct a positive majority for the deal.

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey Negotiations between the EU and the UK are finished. SW: “We are not going to open the withdrawal agreement.”

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey British negotiators shaped the result of WA and not acknowledging this is “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”. Backstop design was “very much shaped by the UK”.

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey SW set out why commission had rejected tech solutions as not enough:
“The [British] negotiators have not been able to explain them to us and that’s not their fault; it’s because they don’t exist.”

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey British parliamentary debate on the backstop does feel like Groundhog Day. “None of this is new” and various amendments have been extensively discussed.

@epc_eu @RobSchuCentre @DanielBoffey The EU has “margin” to move on the political declaration, but a lot of discussion is "uninhibited by any knowledge" of what is in withdrawal agreement, she said.

Now over to MPs...