David Davis has damaged trust in UK, says Verhofstadt

[Denzil_DC]

David Davis’s claim that the UK’s concessions in an agreement to move on the Brexit negotiations were merely a statement of intent has damaged trust and will see a hardening of positions in Brussels, the European parliament’s coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, has said.

The former Belgian prime minister claimed the Brexit secretary’s comments over the weekend were “unacceptable”, and undermined confidence in the British government’s trustworthiness.

The member states will now agree a tougher wording in their guidelines about the next stage of the talks, due to be signed off at a summit of leaders on Friday, Verhofstadt said.

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“As someone said, it’s an own goal,” Verhofstadt said. “It is clear that the European council will be more strict now. It is saying: ‘Yeah, OK, these are our intentions, our commitments, we want these commitments translated into legal text before we make progress in the second stage.’ That is now the position of the council. I have seen a hardening of the position of the council and there will be a hardening of the position of the parliament.”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/12/david-davis-has-damaged-trust-in-the-uk-for-brexit-talks-says-verhofstadt

[T_i_B]

1. EU readies 'David Davis-proof' Brexit summit

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-davis/eu-readies-david-davis-proof-brexit-summit-idUKKBN1E62I9

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union plays down talk by Britain’s Brexit minister that last week’s interim accord is not binding and will launch new talks on Friday that are “David Davis-proof”, a senior EU official said.

The comment on Tuesday followed Brexit Secretary Davis’s weekend remark that outline divorce terms were more a “statement of intent” than legally binding. The EU official told reporters that EU leaders meeting on Friday will ram home in guidelines to their negotiator that Britain must honour its agreements so far if it wants to discuss the future free trade treaty it wants.

Davis himself pledged to convert last Friday’s deal into “legal text” as soon as possible after he spoke to the European Parliament’s Brexit point man. Guy Verhofstadt branded Davis’s earlier comment “unhelpful” and said that what the EU executive calls a gentleman’s agreement must be made legal.

Adding to the debate over how far London is bound by May’s deal, Barnier insisted there should be “no backtracking” if London is to have the trade negotiations it so much wants.