MNI BREXIT: EU Sees Only Limited Progress At August Talks

--Possible Progress On Citizens Rights, But No "Breakthrough" 

--October Deadline for Priority Issues Now Seen Unrealistic

by Jean Comte

     BRUSSELS (MNI) - EU and UK negotiators are not expected to make significant

progress next week as they sit down for their third round of Brexit

negotiations, Market News understands. The talks will again focus on the issues

defined as "priority" by the EU side -- namely the rights of citizens, the

Brexit bill and the peace process in Northern Ireland.

     The EU was initially hoping to make "sufficient progress" on the three

priority issues by October 2017, when EU leaders meet in Brussels, and then to

deal with other withdrawal topics by the fall of 2018 -- leaving enough time for

Member States and EU Parliament to rubber-stamp the final Brexit deal before

March 2019.

     Whether 'sufficient progress' was achieved was supposed to be decided at

the Head of State meeting, scheduled for Oct 19. But this deadline is now seen

as unrealistic by many EU sources, with very little progress made until now and

no breakthrough expected next week.

     "We are far from sufficient progress, I don't see it happening," an EU

official told Market News International.

     "After next week's negotiations, there will only be 6 weeks before the

heads of States meeting," said Open Britain's Cole. "It's quite unlikely to have

sufficient progress then."

     Some progress is nevertheless expected on the first topic, which concerns

the status of EU national living in the UK and of UK nationals living in the EU.

One EU senior officials said on Friday that it is possible to "advance on areas

of convergence", such as coordination of social security and treatment of

cross-border workers.

     Talks on the so-called Brexit bill -- the amount of money that the EU wants

the UK to pay when leaving the bloc -- will not move forward, with the UK still

refusing to publish an official position paper. Only an oral presentation of

London's position is expected, along with specific talks on the European

Investment Bank.

     London has published its position on the Irish peace process. It was

welcomed by the EU side, but officials regret that it is "contaminated" by

issues linked to the future UE-UK relation -- which are not supposed to be

tackled before the three priority issues are solved. "It is very important that

the peace process does not become a bargaining chip in these negotiations," said

a senior official.

     "The UK tries to muddy the water and to mix up problems linked to the

safeguard of the Irish peace process with issues related to the future EU-UK

relation," a second EU official told MNI. "It won't work -- we'll just carve out

and ignore everything concerning the future relation."

     That would also apply to documents published this week by the UK government

on other topics, such as data protection and dispute resolution - topics that

will not be tackled in the short term.

     "By publishing these papers now, the UK government is trying to give the

impression that it is working on Brexit," Thomas Cole, head of Policy at Open

Britain told MNI. "But it is premature at this stage".

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

[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$E$$$,MC$$$$,MI$$$$,MGB$$$]