Having both flexed their rhetorical muscles over the weekend (EU proclaiming their negotiating stance would be "firm" and UK saying the talks would be "confrontational"), it appears behind the scenes of the May-described "constructive" meeting with EU's Juncker was a disaster.
While the UK Government described the meeting on Wednesday as "constructive," saying the pair discussed other international issues in a "useful working dinner," a very different account emerged in the Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) newspaper's report.
Britian's Independent reports that the seemingly disastrous meeting between Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker has been laid bare in a report that reveals the European Commission President told her: "I leave Downing Street 10 times more sceptical than I was before," claiming Mrs. May had unrealistic expectations about the length and process of negotiations.
The PM reportedly insisted on discussing other world problems as well as Brexit and refused to accept that the UK owed the EU billions of euros, saying there was no such demand in EU treaties.
She was told in response that the EU was “not a golf club”.
She was told that would not be possible, because the UK would become worse off in the future as a “third country” – a country outside of the EU and the customs union.
The morning after the meeting, Mr Juncker called German Chancellor Angela Merkel and reportedly said Ms May “lived in another galaxy” and was “deluding herself”.
It prompted Ms Merkel to quickly amend a passage in her speech to the EU’s Brexit summit, a speech that would be described as her toughest yet.
“I have to put it in such clear terms because unfortunately I have the feeling that some in Britain still have illusions,” she said.
“But that would be a waste of time.”
Since the release of the FAZ report, a British government spokesperson has said that they do not "recognize the account of the May-Juncker meeting in a German Newspaper." So it appears the games have begun.
via http://ift.tt/2pxDn8C Tyler Durden