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15 tweets,
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1. Although Tusk and Juncker cannot agree if Brexit talks are deadlocked, the difference is tone, not substance.
2. Tusk offered pretty significant olive branch - EU will talk about UK position papers.
3. Macron said UK was less than halfway there on divorce bill, Merkel confident of success
4. Juncker criticised the deadlock. But he is not key player in Brexit negotiations (said superficial British hack)
5. Some see glass half full, others half empty: but basic consensus (1) EU ready to launch trade talks Dec (2) if UK settles its debts.
6. Divorce deal is there for taking in December, but May has to compromise. After that Brexit will get x10 more complicated for both sides.
7. EU negotiators think UK still wants to have its cake and eat it when it talks of “creative and imaginative” solutions.
8. The gov is coming to fork in the road: Canada or Norway? + sovereignty or + integration? Boris Johnson or Philip Hammond?
9. Trade offs everywhere: if UK adopts US animal/phytosanitary standards it will restrict ability to export to EU.
10. If UK drops standards on workers’ rights or slashes corporation taxes it will restrict ability to export to EU.
11. If UK wants close economic ties with EU, it will remain in EU’s regulatory orbit w/o say.
12. Phase 2 talks will test EU more than divorce. EU27 can agree on divorce bill. On trade, diverging economic +pol interests vis-à-vis UK.
13. Merkel ref to task when she said EU needed to work out what “ non-sufficient adherence” to the rules of the single market means.
14. And Irish border question far from solved: happy collusion on both sides to avoid saying there is problem.
15. Ok we've all had enough council conclusions for one day - that's my take fwiw
