It’s landed! @MichelBarnier’s #Brexit diaries are published in French today.
@Sam1Fleming and I have been through the 542 pages, armed with coffee and a dictionary: 1/
Here’s our take on it for the @FT, leading on the bewilderment on the #EU side about @BorisJohnson’s negotiating tactics: on.ft.com/33fx0vn

Here are some highlights from the book: 2/
1) Baffled by Boris: @MichelBarnier is frequently left scratching his head at Johnson’s forays into the negotiations. A classic happens at a high-stakes December 2020 dinner with @vonderleyen where Johnson seems to do a 180-degree turn on foreign policy cooperation: 3/
2) Frustrated by Frost: @MichelBarnier makes no attempt to hide his annoyance at his stop-start relationship with his #UK opposite number. When Britain abruptly halts talks in October, he describes @DavidGHFrost’s tactics as “almost childish”. 4/
3) Going into bat for de Gaulle: @MichelBarnier can’t help taking the bate each time a #UK minister baits him with quotes from his political hero. Here he is explaining the facts of life to Stephen Barclay: 5/
4) And here’s the best bit of the book: a reference to the fantastic work of Paul McClean, a superb journalist and wonderful guy who left us far, far too soon. 5/
Here is the story of Paul’s that @MichelBarnier is referring to: ft.com/content/f1435a…

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More from @jimbrunsden

20 Jan
#UK musicians are attacking their loss of rights in the #Brexit deal:

thetimes.co.uk/article/more-t…

Here are some details on the offer #Britain turned down in the #Brexit trade talks: 1/
In March, the #EU included this proposal in a draft of the trade treaty published on its website: Page 354: ec.europa.eu/info/sites/inf…
The offer was fairly standard trade-deal fare. It essentially would have treated musicians and other travelling artists as tourists, allowing them to qualify for visa-waiver 2/
Read 10 tweets
18 Jan
The @EU_Commission just added another initiative to its long list of existing projects aimed at boosting innovation from #Brussels. This time with an even more impenetrable than usual name: The European Bauhaus: 1/ Image
Now, I must confess, when I think of Bauhaus, I think of this: 2/ Image
But anyway, the #EU project is meant to "develop an innovative framework to support, facilitate and accelerate the green transformation by combining sustainability and aesthetics". 3/
Read 9 tweets
27 Dec 20
#Brexit: @EU_Commission says that it is not ready to take decisions on future ties with the City of London in time for January 1: with @SebastianEPayne @ChrisGiles

ft.com/content/3c07d2…

1/
The @EU_Commission has said in an explanatory doc that it needs more information from the #UK before taking "equivalence" decisions on financial services: ec.europa.eu/commission/pre… 2/
Reminder: the #UK has already sent back 2,500 pages of answers to #EU questionnaires.

#EU sources confirm that the wording of the explanatory document is a signal that further equivalence decisions will not come before the end of the year 3/
Read 5 tweets
1 Dec 20
#EU's @MichelBarnier will appear before EU ambassadors by videolink Wednesday morning on a nerve-steadying mission as capitals fret about the compromises that could be made to get a deal with #UK 1/
Bunch of countries including France are increasingly jittery that the EU may give too much away to get a deal over the line. This follows recent EU concessions to facilitate trade in goods 2 /
French president @EmmanuelMacron warned today that France "will not accept an agreement that does not respect our long-term interests.”

The jittery group are countries such as France, Belgium, Netherlands that have closest trading relationships with UK & are fishing nations 3/
Read 4 tweets
7 Oct 20
Here's the full @DavidGHFrost answer on state aid, setting out what #UK is prepared to agree with #EU: 1/
"We have heard what EU has been saying about needing a degree of reassurance and we respect the fact that EU has dropped its original proposal that we should simply adopt the EU state aid system and dynamically align with it … that is now not part of this discussion" 2/
"We are beginning, and we are only just beginning, a discussion on 'is it possible to go further than you normally do in a free trade agreement' and agree some provisions that, as it were, shape and condition the subsidy policy on both sides" 3/
Read 8 tweets
7 Oct 20
Irked by a question about the #EU's level playing field demands on climate change, @michaelgove cuts across @DavidGHFrost, and makes some comments that are very revealing about how much he can't stand the EU: 1/
"It's important to recognize that some people view the EU as though the commission were Plato's guardian: disinterested upholders of virtue. And that whatever they decree is right..."2/
"And that other countries and states are potential rogues, who need to be brought back into line. If one looks at the EU's record on climate change matters and compare it with the UK, I think the UK compares very favorably..." 3/
Read 5 tweets

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