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In today's paper, a long interview with @MichelBarnier He talked to El Mundo, La Stampa, Les Echos and Die Welt yesterday after Coreper's meeting. Brexit from every possible angle
Some ideas: is it still possible to approve and ratify the WA before March 29? "No, no". Even if May gets a "yes" an extension will be needed. "It would be called motivated, technical extension (..). If it takes two months for the procedure, it would be justified "
A 3 months extension fo Art 50? Six? 21 months? "We do not need much more time, we need decisions. All extension will prolong uncertainty for Europe. If there is extension, the integrity of the institutions, their ability to act must be protected"
"Barnier: "An extension should serve to fix a problem, not to delay the solution, not to postpone the problem three or six months. We should not risk prolonging the general uncertainty in Europe beyond the May elections"
What can be done to break the impasse? A third document. "Guarantees, assurances, can be offered in a document, I do not want to prejudge the form, not in the PD. We can imagine an interpretative document, with elements already included in the Tusk and Juncker letter"
"We now care about the substance, the content. That is the priority and we work with the British on the content, the guarantees, the trust elements to reinforce. The legal nature of this document is a question that will come later"
Is it rational to go for a no-deal of devastating consequences instead of accepting small change in the WA? "I have never said, and nobody has said, that a no deal has terrible consequences.They will be serious but we are ready. Consequences will be much more serious for the UK"
Full text (in Spanish) here elmundo.es/internacional/…
