BREXIT: EC Juncker "Not Satisfied" With UK Position Papers

By Tara Oakes

     BRUSSELS (MNI) - None of the UK's recent swathe of Brexit position papers

were satisfying, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Tuesday.

     Future relationship talks cannot be launched until the divorce is settled,

he added, putting paid to UK hopes of speeding up the second phase of

negotiations.

     Juncker confirmed that he had read all the papers that Britain had

published in the run-up to the August negotiations -- weeks after the bloc had

published a large number of their own.

     "The British government were hesitating to show their colours, so we

published ours to inspire them," Juncker jibed at a European Union ambassadors'

conference.

     He added that the recent flurry of documents haven't sufficiently dealt

with the three issues that require "sufficient progress" before future

relationship talks can begin: citizens' rights, the exit financial settlement

and the question of the island of Ireland.

     "None of them really satisfied me. There are a huge number of questions

that still need answering," Juncker told attendees, adding that there was no

"definitive response" on the Irish question or citizens' rights.

     UK negotiator David Davis has been pushing for a revision of the agreed

timetable to allow for future relationship talks to go ahead in tandem with the

three key divorce issues.

     But Juncker said that the EC's proposal was "ultra-clear".

     "We won't have any talks on new relations before settling all the questions

of Article 50 -- the divorce," he said.

     "We have to deal with the past before the future."

     Juncker's comments came as more marked tensions between the sides bubbled

up from the very start of the latest round of Article 50 talks. EC negotiator

Michel Barnier opened a usually cordial first day of talks by saying he was

"concerned" at the time passing without progress.

     Davis called for "flexibility and imagination": but Juncker's comments

Tuesday give an indication how limited the EC's flexibility on the timetable, at

least, will be.

--MNI Brussels Bureau; +44 203-865-3851; email: tara.oakes@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

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