Barnier tries to reassure MEPs worried about Brexit countdown

British election results and delayed start of withdrawal talks stirs anxiety in Parliament.

STRASBOURG — There’s less than 22 months left until Brexit talks are scheduled to end, and members of the European Parliament are getting anxious about getting them started.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, on Tuesday tried to reassure MEPs that there’s nothing to worry about. But there wasn’t much he could say other than to remind them that the EU is ready and the delays are London’s fault.

In some ways Barnier’s confidential briefing for members of the Parliament’s Brexit steering committee only fueled MEPs’ worries. An opening session with the British — a first formal sit-down to talk about the talks — will not take place until at least next Thursday, June 22, he said. At best, that means the first substantive negotiations would happen the following week. But nothing is set in stone.

Barnier could also not offer MEPs, or European commissioners, whom he also briefed in Strasbourg, any clarity about the political fallout in the U.K. that left Prime Minister Theresa May clinging to power and created the latest delays and uncertainty around Brexit.

Participants in Barnier’s meetings said he pointedly refused to comment on the British political situation, and he held firm outside the meetings as well. “My role is not to make any comment on the political life in member states,” Barnier told POLITICO after emerging from his afternoon briefing of the Parliament’s steering committee.

“I’m the European negotiator,” he said, noting that he had to rush to catch a train. “I’m ready to work with the U.K government. I don’t want to make a case against Theresa May.”

Barnier may be ready, but May and the U.K. are not.

Nearly a year has passed since the British voted to leave the EU, and it’s now two-and-a-half months since May formally triggered Article 50, kicking off a two-year countdown for reaching a withdrawal agreement.

Not only have negotiations still not begun, but May’s struggle to secure a majority in the House of Commons has raised a host of questions about whether she will be forced to change some of her original goals for Brexit.

Asked about the nearly three-month delay since May’s Article 50 letter, Barnier replied: “I know.”

“He told us we have to wait now,” said a senior Parliament official.

“He was very dry,” the official added. “He said we have to keep our line, we can’t afford to lose more time and he would hope that next Thursday or Friday, things could start.”

Barnier referred to the opening session as “talks about talks,” which would be “easy entry for the U.K.,” the official said.

If nothing else, the delay on the U.K. side gave Barnier an opportunity to continue his outreach to MEPs and commissioners and to further shore up unity on the EU side.

Some MEPs, however, voiced rising exasperation over the delays.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Parliament plenary, Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt called for negotiations to start as soon as possible. “The uncertainty cannot continue,” he said, adding: “I should welcome a position from the U.K. Do they confirm their position from the 29 March letter? Or will they change it?”

But for officials worried that the March 2019 two-year deadline will arrive without a formal withdrawal agreement, there was little Barnier could say.

“Clearly the Brits are not ready yet and it’s a pity,” a senior Commission official said.

Although Barnier met Monday with May’s Brexit sherpa, Oliver Robbins, EU officials said the discussions were superficial and in no way suggested the start of negotiations were imminent.

“Let’s try to keep technical stuff going this week, next week,” an EU official said, describing the conversation with Robbins. “This does not qualify as the formal start of negotiations.”

In the college of commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Barnier offered no news flash. “It was Michel sharing his view on the rather static situation,” an official said.

It was clear in the meeting that the U.K. election result had raised fresh concerns about Brexit, including the potential impact of a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

Among the few questions for Barnier was one from the health commissioner, Vytenis Andriukaitis, who asked about the status of potentially relocating the European Medicines Agency from its current headquarters in London. “The answer is pretty obvious,” a senior EU official said. “We’re nowhere because we haven’t started yet.”

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