Brexiteers were right! German MEP's confession on Barnier's masterplan unveiled

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    At the end of last month, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen warned the EU will not hesitate to use the “real teeth” in the Brexit deal to punish the UK Government for breaching its obligation. As MEPs prepared to vote on the historic agreement, marking the end of four years of high political drama, Ms von Der Leyen said: “This agreement comes with real teeth with a binding dispute settlement mechanism and the possibility for unilateral remedial measures where necessary. “And let me be very clear: we do not want to have to use these tools, but we will not hesitate to use them if necessary. They are essential to ensure full compliance with the [trade and cooperation agreement], and with the withdrawal agreement, which both were negotiated in such fine details and agreed by both sides.”

    Since the end of the transition period on January 1, the UK Government has been accused of breaching its commitments in Northern Ireland and on an agreement on fisheries.

    However, Brexiteers believe it is all part of a worrying pattern.

    Ever since Britain voted to leave in 2016, Vote Leavers have accused Brussels of wanting to harm the UK during the Brexit talks as a deterrent to other countries that might have been thinking of getting out.

    In 2017, German MEP Hans-Olaf Henkel insisted British eurosceptics were right to think that.

    Mr Henkel, the president of the Federation of German Industries and a former chief executive of IBM, hit out at the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, for planning to impose a bad exit agreement on Britain as a warning to other countries tempted to leave the EU.

    Guy Verhofstadt, the former European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator, was also guilty of wanting “to make a mess out of this whole unhappy situation”.

    Mr Henkel said: “I have the impression, by their public statements, that indeed they would like to set an example.

    “They want to punish Britain and make sure that no one else is leaving the European Union.

    “By the very fact that they say that a country which leaves the European Union should not have the same deal as a country which is in the European Union you can demonstrate what they mean.”

    Mr Henkel urged other MEPs “not to listen” to their own negotiators.

    A few months after the German MEP’s speech, the European Commission was forced to apologise to diplomats from the remaining 27 EU over a punishment clause in the draft text of the arrangement for the Brexit transition period.

    Mr Barnier had defended the clause as “perfectly normal” but was forced to redraft the language, as it sparked a furious reaction from former Brexit Secretary David Davis and several Conservative politicians.

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    The clause effectively handed the European Commission the ability to unilaterally slap Britain with tariffs, withdraw UK business access to the single market and even plane landing rights if the UK refused to follow all new and existing EU law during the transition period.

    Brussels justified the clause by saying the European Court of Justice (ECJ) was too slow to enforce judgement on Britain during the transition period.

    Mr Davis branded it “frankly discourteous” and accused Mr Barnier of wanting to have it “both ways”, after Brussels rejected British demands to be given the right to object to any new EU law against its interest during transition.

    EU officials moved swiftly to calm national diplomats who were concerned the clause could jeopardise the prospects of a final Brexit deal.

    An EU diplomat told The Telegraph: “The Commission apologised.

    “They said they had worded the clause inappropriately.

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    “They were forthright about it and said they would redraft the text.”

    Diplomats demanded new language for the draft transition deal claiming that the normal procedures for punishing countries that break EU law would have followed.

    Only if Britain ignored such “infringement procedures”, would the punishment clause be invoked.

    The rare mea culpa from Brussels was a sign of how desperate the Commission was to maintain the constructed united front of the EU 27 in the face of Brexit.



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